Installing to the External

[ichase]

Greetings Everyone.I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! or Holiday because I do know not everyone celebrates Christmas. :)I know there was already a thread with this subject involved but it's now over 130 posts so I figured I would start a new thread specifically for this issue.I installed Pinguy OS on the external. hd1, 5 Installation went well. I set the bootloader to install on dev/sd b5 (the partition I installed the distro on) I then rebooted into UE 2.8 (Grub hoster) typed:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

That went fine and set the grub.cfg to recognize the OS on SDB5I then installed to the MBR

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

That came back successfulWhen I rebooted again, I saw the Pinguy install on dev/sdb5 and I selected it. This is what I got:

error:  no such device: 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83.error:  hd1,msdos5 cannot get C/H/S values.error:  you need to load the kernel first.Press any key to continue...

What are C/H/S values???When I select any key, it brings me back to my grub menu.I am thinking that I am not installing the bootloader in the right place. For some reason, I thought Frank said to install it on the partition you are installing the OS too. I could be wrong, I was trying to find it with-in the longer thread.Thanks again everyone!!!13.5 inches of snow in Virginia Beach?????? Something seems wrong with that. :hysterical:All the best,Ian

Edited December 28, 2010 by ichase

[Frank Golden]

Greetings Everyone.I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! or Holiday because I do know not everyone celebrates Christmas. :)I know there was already a thread with this subject involved but it's now over 130 posts so I figured I would start a new thread specifically for this issue.I installed Pinguy OS on the external. hd1, 5 Installation went well. I set the bootloader to install on dev/sd b5 (the partition I installed the distro on) I then rebooted into UE 2.8 (Grub hoster) typed:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

That went fine and set the grub.cfg to recognize the OS on SDB5I then installed to the MBR

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

That came back successfulWhen I rebooted again, I saw the Pinguy install on dev/sdb5 and I selected it. This is what I got:

error:  no such device: 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83.error:  hd1,msdos5 cannot get C/H/S values.error:  you need to load the kernel first.Press any key to continue...

What are C/H/S values???When I select any key, it brings me back to my grub menu.I am thinking that I am not installing the bootloader in the right place. For some reason, I thought Frank said to install it on the partition you are installing the OS too. I could be wrong, I was trying to find it with-in the longer thread.Thanks again everyone!!!13.5 inches of snow in Virginia Beach?????? Something seems wrong with that. :hysterical:All the best,Ian

One thing Ian you did not need to run

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

You have already installed GRUB on your sda previously.Can you post the contents of your /boot/grub/grub.conf file from Ultimate.

[ichase]

Here ya go

## DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE## It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub#### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then  set have_grubenv=true  load_envfiset default="0"if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then  set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"  save_env saved_entry  set prev_saved_entry=  save_env prev_saved_entry  set boot_once=truefifunction savedefault {  if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then	saved_entry="${chosen}"	save_env saved_entry  fi}function recordfail {  set recordfail=1  if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi}function load_video {  insmod vbe  insmod vga}insmod part_msdosinsmod ext2set root='(hd0,msdos6)'search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2; then  set gfxmode=640x480  load_video  insmod gfxtermfiterminal_output gfxterminsmod part_msdosinsmod ext2set root='(hd0,msdos6)'search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/localeset lang=eninsmod gettextif [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then  set timeout=-1else  set timeout=10fi### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###set menu_color_normal=white/blackset menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {	recordfail	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic root=UUID=490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59 ro   quiet splash	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic}menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {	recordfail	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.35-24-generic ...'	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic root=UUID=490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59 ro single 	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic}menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {	recordfail	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59 ro   quiet splash	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic}menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {	recordfail	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.35-23-generic ...'	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59 ro single 	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic}menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {	recordfail	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59 ro   quiet splash	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic}menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {	recordfail	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	echo	'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59 ro single 	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic}### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin}menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos6)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 490fb7ce-042e-4fc1-9152-7c2ace583e59	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8}### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {	insmod part_msdos	insmod ntfs	set root='(hd0,msdos1)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5d8fecfe73cc715b	drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}	chainloader +1}menuentry "Mandriva 2010.1 (on /dev/sda7)" {	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd0,msdos7)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4b19bad6-d4e4-41f5-b9fd-d7320b046acf	linux /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=Mandriva_2010.1 root=UUID=4b19bad6-d4e4-41f5-b9fd-d7320b046acf resume=UUID=11416279-9bf5-4664-9179-29c52ee00fdc splash=silent vga=788	initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img}menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic (on /dev/sdb5)" {	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd1,msdos5)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83 ro quiet splash	initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic}menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sdb5)" {	insmod part_msdos	insmod ext2	set root='(hd1,msdos5)'	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83	linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83 ro single	initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic}### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom #### This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change# the 'exec tail' line above.### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###if [ -f  $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then  source $prefix/custom.cfg;fi### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

[Frank Golden]

Ian found this, see if it helps.http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8388468I don't see anything wrong with the entry for pinguy.You could try using whatever method your BIOS uses to select the external drive as a boot device and seeing ifyou can boot your new install from there.Either by changing the boot order in the BIOS or using a key stroke during boot that presents a boot device menu likemost newer computers nowadays Mine is F 12 during POST.Another thing you could try since the error message says there is no such device: 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83is to change that to the older /dev/sdx notation.It would look like this

menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic (on /dev/sdb5)" { insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic

Delete the red and substitute /dev/sdb5like this

menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic (on /dev/sdb5)" { insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(hd1,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=/dev/sdb5 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic

Edited December 28, 2010 by Frank Golden

[ichase]

Thanks for the guidance Frank. Tried changing the root to /dev/sdb5 but received the same error. I am currently reading up on Grub 2. Will be something I will need to read more than once because some of it is not making sense to me, but that is due to my lack of experience which I realize. But would definitely like to get to the point where I can run scripts to add to the grub.cfg and actually get it to work. I will keep you posted as I try other things. Have not tried to F12 and boot from the HDD yet. Will try that here shortly. :)IanEdit: Duh, this lappy does not have the ability to boot from USB

Edited December 28, 2010 by ichase

[Urmas]

Hmmmm... I wonder... has anybody tried this:http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

[ichase]

Thanks for the link Urmas. Have you tried it?Frank, mentioned in an earlier post about deleting all the extra entries in the grub.cfg file. Well, I went ahead and tried it (of course backing it up first ) And now my Grub menu is nice and organized. Now again, I do realize this is a temporary fix, so if the kernel is updated it will go back to the way it was, so I saved what I have and all I have to do is a quick cut and paste and I am back organized. I am reading up on creating scripts so that it stays organized even after a kernel update.I still can't figure out why I am not able to boot into my external. Was I correct in installing the boot loader to the partition I was installing to?On another note as well, I used your Clonezilla guide and cloned all of my partitions. Very easy to follow guidance and I also restored the clones to make sure they were good. So just wanted to say great job on your first guide. Worked as advertised. :thumbup:All the best,Ian

[securitybreach]

Thanks for the link Urmas. Have you tried it?Frank, mentioned in an earlier post about deleting all the extra entries in the grub.cfg file. Well, I went ahead and tried it (of course backing it up first ) And now my Grub menu is nice and organized. Now again, I do realize this is a temporary fix, so if the kernel is updated it will go back to the way it was, so I saved what I have and all I have to do is a quick cut and paste and I am back organized. I am reading up on creating scripts so that it stays organized even after a kernel update.I still can't figure out why I am not able to boot into my external. Was I correct in installing the boot loader to the partition I was installing to?On another note as well, I used your Clonezilla guide and cloned all of my partitions. Very easy to follow guidance and I also restored the clones to make sure they were good. So just wanted to say great job on your first guide. Worked as advertised. :thumbup:All the best,Ian

Well you cannot boot into a external drive if your Bios does not allow usb booting. I noticed before you said that your laptop does not support usb booting.

[onederer]

Greetings Everyone.I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! or Holiday because I do know not everyone celebrates Christmas. :)I know there was already a thread with this subject involved but it's now over 130 posts so I figured I would start a new thread specifically for this issue.I installed Pinguy OS on the external. hd1, 5 Installation went well. I set the bootloader to install on dev/sd b5 (the partition I installed the distro on) I then rebooted into UE 2.8 (Grub hoster) typed:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

That went fine and set the grub.cfg to recognize the OS on SDB5I then installed to the MBR

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

That came back successfulWhen I rebooted again, I saw the Pinguy install on dev/sdb5 and I selected it. This is what I got:

error:  no such device: 40e4c837-a4ee-4ccf-a898-88d97df9ef83.error:  hd1,msdos5 cannot get C/H/S values.error:  you need to load the kernel first.Press any key to continue...

What are C/H/S values???When I select any key, it brings me back to my grub menu.I am thinking that I am not installing the bootloader in the right place. For some reason, I thought Frank said to install it on the partition you are installing the OS too. I could be wrong, I was trying to find it with-in the longer thread.Thanks again everyone!!!13.5 inches of snow in Virginia Beach?????? Something seems wrong with that. :hysterical:All the best,Ian

I don't know if this pertains to you, but when I installed Linux on an external bootable USB hard drive, I let the Linux installation process install GRUB in the external drive. This GRUB presents a menu to either run Linux on the external hard drive, or Windows on the internal hard drive. If additional Linux OS's were installed on the USB external hard drive, I imagine that Grub would also manage them.On the plus side is if I unplug that Linux USB hard drive, then Windows boots up normally without needing any assistance from any Grub bootloader.Cheers!

[Frank Golden]

Thanks for the link Urmas. Have you tried it?Frank, mentioned in an earlier post about deleting all the extra entries in the grub.cfg file. Well, I went ahead and tried it (of course backing it up first ) And now my Grub menu is nice and organized. Now again, I do realize this is a temporary fix, so if the kernel is updated it will go back to the way it was, so I saved what I have and all I have to do is a quick cut and paste and I am back organized. I am reading up on creating scripts so that it stays organized even after a kernel update.I still can't figure out why I am not able to boot into my external. Was I correct in installing the boot loader to the partition I was installing to?On another note as well, I used your Clonezilla guide and cloned all of my partitions. Very easy to follow guidance and I also restored the clones to make sure they were good. So just wanted to say great job on your first guide. Worked as advertised. :thumbup:All the best,Ian

Excellent Ian, I always perform a restore while I'm still in Clonezilla to prove the clone will work when needed.The reason I suggested installing GRUB to the install partition is that if you allow the external distro to install grub to the internal HDD MBR you will need the external drive plugged in to boot anything.Every subsequent distro install on the external if allowed to install it's grub to the internal drives MBR will rewrite the MBR to suitit's menu and you would need to have the external drive plugged all the time.By keeping the GRUB install in the partition the OS is installed in you avoid this.Running the

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Command after each new install should add the new distro to the menu.Another option is to write grub to the external drives MBR with each additional distro.This will provide a boot menu when the external drive is selected in the BIOS either by the function key during POSTor resetting boot order in BIOS setup.You might try reinstalling Pinguy and choosing sdb as the grub install location.Then update the Ultimate GRUB 2 again.Don't run the grub install command this time.

[ichase]

So with nothing being seen wrong with my grub.cfg entry. Could it be that Grub2 will just not allow for running additional OSs on an external HDD? I have even thought about having Mandriva host grub (which I believe they are still using legacy) and install UE 2.8 on sda7. Or better yet, does it matter what partition they are on. With out uninstalling both OSs and technically for lack of a better word, swapping them, could I go in and make it to where my Mandriva is hosting grub? I tried your advice Frank and it resulted in the exact same error. After I removed Pinguy, I re-formatted sdb5 to ext4. Went into UE and ran the grub.cfg update so that it was no longer showing. I then re-installed Pinguy back onto sdb5 and installed to bootloader to sdb. Ran the grub.cfg update again in UE, that went fine and Pinguy once again showed in my grub menu as Pinguy on sdb5. Thanks,Ian

[burninbush]

So with nothing being seen wrong with my grub.cfg entry. Could it be that Grub2 will just not allow for running additional OSs on an external HDD? Thanks,Ian

Uhmmm... reading through this thread, there are a couple points I might be able to clarify. "C/H/S" is shorthand for cylinder-head-sector, an old way of describing the organization of sectors on a hard disk. It dates back into the dos era, and I'm surprised to see a modern reference to it. I doubt it ever applies correctly to a usb drive. I believe though that the real problem is that your puter's bios doesn't allow booting from a usb device, and grub is not able to solve that by itself. *** I will suggest something that might work, though -- use one of your other linux distros [or windows] to extract copies of the vmlinuz and initrd files from the pinguy distro, copy them into a folder on your main disk that grub =can= read OK. Presumably, the drivers contained within vmlinuz and initrd.gz do know how to read a usb disk, and once they are loaded from your main disk then the rest of the boot can proceed from the usb drive. *** but Plop as someone else mentioned might be able to read it; plop contains usb drivers to work around the old bios issues. Generally plop is used from a boot diskette to load linux from a usb device. p.s. -- as an aside, I haven't used grub2, but in general if you are already booting with grub then you don't need to do any reinstall of it, just edit the config file to describe your new device.

[ichase]

Uhmmm... reading through this thread, there are a couple points I might be able to clarify. "C/H/S" is shorthand for cylinder-head-sector, an old way of describing the organization of sectors on a hard disk. It dates back into the dos era, and I'm surprised to see a modern reference to it. I doubt it ever applies correctly to a usb drive. I believe though that the real problem is that your puter's bios doesn't allow booting from a usb device, and grub is not able to solve that by itself. *** I will suggest something that might work, though -- use one of your other linux distros [or windows] to extract copies of the vmlinuz and initrd files from the pinguy distro, copy them into a folder on your main disk that grub =can= read OK. Presumably, the drivers contained within vmlinuz and initrd.gz do know how to read a usb disk, and once they are loaded from your main disk then the rest of the boot can proceed from the usb drive. *** but Plop as someone else mentioned might be able to read it; plop contains usb drivers to work around the old bios issues. Generally plop is used from a boot diskette to load linux from a usb device. p.s. -- as an aside, I haven't used grub2, but in general if you are already booting with grub then you don't need to do any reinstall of it, just edit the config file to describe your new device.

Thanks for replying burninbush,You mentioned something that I got to thinking about earlier today. In regards to the fact that this lappy's BIOS does not have the ability/selection to boot from USB, would there not be an issue once I try booting to the USB even from the Grub menu? Good point. :thumbsup:I believe I may be following a little of what you are saying. I would need to read the partition where I installed Pinguy, open up the vmlinuz and initrd folder and copy those files to the main (internal HDD) sense I have UE hosting my grub, that would seem like the logical place to put them. But as far as editing the config file, that is WAY over my head "At this point" <----Always willing to learn though :thumbsup:I an not sure as to exactly where I would need to copy those files too so that grub would recognize them in order to boot Pinguy (or all of the other future distros I was wanting to put on this external HDD)Looks like I need to read up on Plop. :)Thanks again,Ian

[securitybreach]

Thanks for replying burninbush,You mentioned something that I got to thinking about earlier today. In regards to the fact that this lappy's BIOS does not have the ability/selection to boot from USB, would there not be an issue once I try booting to the USB even from the Grub menu? Good point.

I am pretty sure this is a limitation of the hardware and not just bios related but I could be wrong.

[ichase]

I am pretty sure this is a limitation of the hardware and not just bios related but I could be wrong.

What do you mean Josh? Limitation to what hardware? The external HDD itself, or the Lappy?Ian

[onederer]

Well you cannot boot into a external drive if your Bios does not allow usb booting. I noticed before you said that your laptop does not support usb booting.

Au contraire mon ami, my Bios does allow USB booting. This is why I can use this Linux OS on the external USB hard drive. I don't and can't fault the Bios. I've just had hard luck with different Linux OS's, and their capability to find and identify, and mount connected devices. This has been my setback to achieve the task at hand.

[burninbush]

Looks like I need to read up on Plop. smile.gif >ichase+++++++++++I just today got a copy of the latest parted magic 5.8 distro, and I see that it has Plop available on the initial boot menu, under Extras. Kind of a left-handed way of booting a usb system, but it has been done before to get usb installs booted on machines that don't normally boot from usb. Slax has a similar custom cd to boot usb on older machines. The pmagic is a 148mb download -- I find that one VERY handy as a rescue distro -- also has TestDisk and PartImage that I've used a lot for backups. And a bunch of other good stuff. Loading Plop from a cd would likely be much quicker than getting it from a diskette. When I wrote about editing grub.conf, that is just a text file that will be located in /boot/grub on whatever distro you boot with -- take a look at it, and you'll see in text format the items you usually see on the boot menu when you boot that [ubuntu?] distro.

[securitybreach]

What do you mean Josh? Limitation to what hardware? The external HDD itself, or the Lappy?Ian

I mean the bios on the laptop. If it cannot boot usb from the bios, then I do not think you will be able to boot the external using Grub.

[Frank Golden]

duplicate post-ignore

Edited December 31, 2010 by Frank Golden

[Frank Golden]

I mean the bios on the laptop. If it cannot boot usb from the bios, then I do not think you will be able to boot the external using Grub.

I believe you are right Josh. Many newer laptops can boot from USB and I think Ian said that his couldn't.I had this nagging thought that the C\H\S error was related to this but I thought that Ian's machine was capable of booting USB.In that case no software "solution" short of a BIOS upgrade can fix this.My machine is ~4 years old and it can boot from USB, I guess I assumed that Ian's machine could as well.My machine and others that have this ability often have a feature (in my case it needed to be enabled in the BIOS setup)that allow the user to select the boot device with a function key without entering the BIOS proper.Pressing F 12 on my machine during POST brings up a menu that gives me a choice of booting any device plugged in before I startmy machine.Maybe there is a BIOS update available.Then again maybe Burningbush is right about plop.

[burninbush]

Then again maybe Burningbush is right about plop.

Well ... LOL, as funny as the name sounds, it's not really ridiculous. It works because once into memory from diskette or cd then Plop employs new usb drivers that don't require service by bios. That is, they speak directly to the hardware. It's just getting that initial code into memory and running that is difficult. Slax has a run-from-usb cd that works very well on old hardware; it is setup to load vmlinuz and initrd into memory from the cd, start them running, and they include drivers that can read usb even when bios can't. The payoff is that loading the bulk of the system from usbstick or disk is much faster than getting it from cd.

[Frank Golden]

Well ... LOL, as funny as the name sounds, it's not really ridiculous. It works because once into memory from diskette or cd then Plop employs new usb drivers that don't require service by bios. That is, they speak directly to the hardware. It's just getting that initial code into memory and running that is difficult. Slax has a run-from-usb cd that works very well on old hardware; it is setup to load vmlinuz and initrd into memory from the cd, start them running, and they include drivers that can read usb even when bios can't. The payoff is that loading the bulk of the system from usbstick or disk is much faster than getting it from cd.

That makes sense, but it would drive me nuts to need to have a boot disk (CD or floppy) to facilitate booting a USB device.But then again if that was the only way....

[ichase]

Thanks everyone for the great options you have provided. Where can I find the Slax disk that will run in RAM? I have already burned the 5.8 version of Parted Magic so I will definitely be looking at Plop.Ian

[burninbush]

Where can I find the Slax disk that will run in RAM?Ian

http://www.mediafire.com/?g50hznzeztmI'm sure there's an official slax site to get that, but I came across this one first. If you have the full [~190mb] slax disk, then you don't need the usb-boot version; just boot with the standard cd in the drive, and at the first screen select the boot option you want, then Tab to allow you to edit the kernel parameters; you want to add text from=/dev/sdb5 and then hit Enter. And to be clear, this only works to boot slax rev 6.1.2 [last/current version]. So ... if you had the /slax subdirectory tree from the cd on your /dev/sdb5 usb device, the result of adding that from= statement would be to read the kernel and initrd.gz files from the cd, and would then get the rest of slax from the usb device. It's a kinda slick workaround for older puters. If you want to make your own slax boot-from-cd cd -- just use an iso editor to delete the /slax directory tree from the full slax 612 iso, save the result [~9mb size] and burn that to a cd as a disk image. Then, when booting that, after loading the kernel and initrd.gz files, it will search all visible disks for the /slax subdirectory -- wherever it may be found. This works on any kind of filesystem, including ntfs. And it avoids having to explicitly name the usb device, which might not be the same from one bootup to the next. I love slax, keep a copy on all my puters. I think it's the most versatile out there. FWIW, that method works for a lot of live distros copied to hard disk. I've booted PCLinuxOS that way, recent versions [but not the very latest]. Dunno about Pinguy -- haven't looked at that one.

[ichase]

http://www.mediafire.com/?g50hznzeztmIf you have the full [~190mb] slax disk, then you don't need the usb-boot version; just boot with the standard cd in the drive, and at the first screen select the boot option you want, then Tab to allow you to edit the kernel parameters; you want to add text from=/dev/sdb5 and then hit Enter.

I actually do have slax V 6.1.2 already burned onto a disk. :-) Maybe I should have looked twice at my ever growing collection of CDs/DVDs

And to be clear, this only works to boot slax rev 6.1.2 [last/current version]. So ... if you had the /slax subdirectory tree from the cd on your /dev/sdb5 usb device, the result of adding that from= statement would be to read the kernel and initrd.gz files from the cd, and would then get the rest of slax from the usb device. It's a kinda slick workaround for older puters.

Ok.....Now you lost me. Once I boot to the CD, select the boot option I want and tab to edit kernal parameters, does

from=/dev/sdb5

add the /slax subdirectory to my sdb5 where I currently have Pinguy installed? If I am reading what you are saying, the above entry would get the rest of slax from the usb device. Slax is not currently on the usb device? Are you suggesting that I install Slax in the first logical partition of the external usb drive?

If you want to make your own slax boot-from-cd cd -- just use an iso editor to delete the /slax directory tree from the full slax 612 iso, save the result [~9mb size] and burn that to a cd as a disk image. Then, when booting that, after loading the kernel and initrd.gz files, it will search all visible disks for the /slax subdirectory -- wherever it may be found. This works on any kind of filesystem, including ntfs. And it avoids having to explicitly name the usb device, which might not be the same from one bootup to the next.

So hypothetically speaking, If I perform the above, I would start the lappy, boot off this cd that has the /slax directory deleted from it and it kind of becomes my new grub menu to where I will be able to select any of my OS's on the external provided I add the /slax subdirectory to each one after install?I appologize if I seem very confused. I think I am going to try Plop first and see what happens then. I also got to thinking about the whole "Lappy unable to boot to USB device" in theory, the lappy (or any computer) goes through the boot list during post. Well, by the time it get's to my grub menu, it has booted off the HDD and brings you to your grub menu. So technically, by selecting my OS from the external should be no different then me accessing the external while in any of my 3 OS's currently installed on the internal?Thanks for your assistance as always and thank you burninbush for taking the time to figure this out. :thumbup:Ian

[burninbush]

Thanks for your assistance as always and thank you burninbush for taking the time to figure this out. thumbup.gifIan+++++++++++++++++To be clear, as I wrote it above, this routine with the slax cd only works to boot slax on a usb device, it's not universal. But, given you have the slax cd on hand, let me suggest a quick test for you. Running from any linux or windows, copy the /slax directory tree from the cd onto the top-level partition of your usb disk [this is ~180mb, the bulk of slax]. You won't need the /boot tree from the cd for this test. The only 'install' action taken here is just a copy of that directory from the cd to the usb disk. With that in place, then try the routine I suggested above; reboot with the slax cd in the drive, and at the first slax screen hit Tab, and add the text from=/dev/sdb1. You should see some initial activity from the cd light, but shortly after it should begin to read from the usb disk. Obviously, use the correct name of your device where I wrote /dev/sdb1. After slax begins to read from the usb disk you can remove the cd from the drive. This test will at least clarify your issue -- once it is known that booting is the only problem with the usb disk, then solutions can be created to avoid the use of the cd altogether [e.g., adding your external distros to the existing grub boot].

[ichase]

To be clear, as I wrote it above, this routine with the slax cd only works to boot slax on a usb device, it's not universal.

Actually that does clear that up.

But, given you have the slax cd on hand, let me suggest a quick test for you. Running from any linux or windows, copy the /slax directory tree from the cd onto the top-level partition of your usb disk [this is ~180mb, the bulk of slax]. You won't need the /boot tree from the cd for this test. The only 'install' action taken here is just a copy of that directory from the cd to the usb disk. With that in place, then try the routine I suggested above; reboot with the slax cd in the drive, and at the first slax screen hit Tab, and add the text from=/dev/sdb1. You should see some initial activity from the cd light, but shortly after it should begin to read from the usb disk. Obviously, use the correct name of your device where I wrote /dev/sdb1. After slax begins to read from the usb disk you can remove the cd from the drive.

Sounds simple enough. I will give this a try and post my results.

This test will at least clarify your issue -- once it is known that booting is the only problem with the usb disk, then solutions can be created to avoid the use of the cd altogether (e.g., adding your external distros to the existing grub boot).

Thanks again burninbush. Keeping fingers crossed that this works. But I have already configured my grub.cfg to recognize the OS on the external? Am sure there is another way to minipulate this. Take care,Ian Edited January 3, 2011 by ichase

[sunrat]

With that in place, then try the routine I suggested above; reboot with the slax cd in the drive, and at the first slax screen hit Tab, and add the text from=/dev/sdb1. You should see some initial activity from the cd light, but shortly after it should begin to read from the usb disk. Obviously, use the correct name of your device where I wrote /dev/sdb1.

Just to clarify this a little, plug in your USB device with an OS already running. Immediately run dmesg from a terminal. It should show you the correct name of the device in one of the last messages.