USB drive install

Bill Davidsen davidsen at tmr.com
Sat May 24 02:15:50 UTC 2008


Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Bill Davidsen wrote:
>> If I do an FC9 install on a USB drive, including writing the grub to 
>> the MBR on the USB drive, is there any reason why I can't pull the 
>> plug and leave the system untouched?
>>
>> Alternatively, since I have grub in the sda MBR, is there any reason 
>> not to just put an additional stanza (not default) in grub.conf to 
>> boot FC9 off USB, and just select that as a boot option when the USB 
>> is plugged in?
>>
> I have done this with earlier versions of Fedora. You may have to 
> install in the expert mode before the installer will see the USB drive. 
> If you install Grub to the USB drive, you have to tell Grub that the USB 
> drive will be hd0 when you boot if you plan on using BIOS settings to 
> boot directly to the USB drive.
> 
> You can also add a chainload from the Grub config in sda to load the 
> Grub install on the USB drive. You will have to remap the drive as part 
> of the stanza so that the USB drive becomes BIOS drive 0.
> 
> title USB boot
>     map (hd0) (hd1)
>     map (hd1) (hd0)
>     chainload (hd0)
> 
Thank you for the words of wisdom Mikkel and Mike. I have to think about 
this a bit, because I have installed (on a server) FC8 (32 bit) on one 
drive and 64 bit on another, using the 32 bit sda MBR and boot partition 
and just pointing to the sdb boot from the boot partition on sda. But I 
will be careful not to botch the existing install, and if it doesn't 
work as expected I'll play with the remap. My plan is to get the FC9 
boot by just manually selecting an alternate stanza of the grub.conf, 
but if that doesn't work I know what to try next.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot




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