OT?? Refusal to boot from external USB

Steven Stern subscribed-lists at sterndata.com
Sun Dec 6 18:46:19 UTC 2009


On 12/06/2009 11:46 AM, BeartoothHOS wrote:
> 
> 	My #3 PC is a handed-down Dell PowerEdge sc1420, now running F11, 
> which began life as a server for a list I help manage. (The list is now 
> hosted elsewhere.) I call it BBB (Big Black Beast), since it's so much 
> larger and blacker than any of my others.
> 
> 	I also have a Lite-On external USB DVD-RW drive, which the BBB 
> sees perfectly well when it's plugged into it. I can read the files on 
> it, which look normal afaict -- in fact, I have installed F12 on two 
> other machines from the same DVD.
> 
> 	And I have the boot sequence in the BIOS set to start with the 
> DVD drive, in order to upgrade to F12 that way. But it doesn't. 
> 
> 	I'm pretty sure I've installed Fedora releases on BBB before, 
> using the DVD drive (certainly the first one, when the it first came to 
> me).
> 
> 	I have previously tried "preupgrade" on the BBB several times; 
> the grub screen now shows an F11 kernel, then the preupgrade option, then 
> more F11 kernels. When Anaconda starts at all, it's because I've clicked 
> that second (Constantine) option -- and then it hits the dread lack of 
> space, and aborts.
> 
> 	Afaict, Anaconda never gets launched from the DVD.
> 
> 	What am I doing wrong? Do I just need to get the Constantine 
> option out of there? 
> 
> 	If so, is it enough to edit /boot/grub/grub.conf? Or do I have to 
> find and dig out everything it refers to? Or what??

I've found that the only way to get my Dell desktop to boot from the USB
key is to turn off all other USB devices. The Dell sees the memory card
slots in my printer before it sees the USB key and reports it can't find
a bootable device.  Turning off the printer solves this.  So, try
unplugging or powering down all other USB devices and see if the Dell
will boot from the external USB.

-- 

  Steve




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