Re: GRUB problem: Booting Linux from USB Disk

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 17:35:56 -0700, Noelle wrote:

Hello:

My PC BIOS supports booting from USB devices, so I decided to load FC5
on one of my USB attached disks (300GB Seagate).

I successfully did so, but I can't get GRUB to work right (i.e. to
complete the boot).
I may be experiencing a syntax or GRUB usage problem

Problem description:

/dev/sda (internal SATA Drive - Windows XP)
/dev/sdb (internal SATA Drive - for Backups)

/dev/sdc (external USB Drive - Fedora Core 5)
/dev/sdc1 (hd2,0) = /boot
/dev/sdc2 (hd2,1) = /
/dev/sdc3 (hd2,2) = swap

During the install, I specified that "stage1" of GRUB
was to be put on the first sector of /dev/sdc1 (and it was).

But when I boot the PC using the USB device, all I get is:

GRUB

<snip>

You have elected to install grub on the partition. What is installed on
the MBR of the device? I am surprised you see anything at all. I would
expect your setup to hang at the loader if everything is as you described.

What filesystem are you using for /boot (/dev/sdc1)? I have experienced
some trouble loading some journalling filesystems when grub is only
installed on the partition. These errors generally go away when grub is
installed on the MBR. It looks like sdc is dedicated to Fedora. Why
don't you install the loader on the MBR on the USB disc?

--
Douglas Mayne

You
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: GRUB, MBR and NTLDR confusion
    ... that GRUB can be loaded on to the boot partition instead of the MBR ... What you want is to install it to the MBR of /dev/hda. ...
    (Ubuntu)
  • Re: Retaining windoze when replacing 9.0 with 9.1?
    ... > My concern is the MBR. ... If grub has been working fine, up 'til now, leave it alone. ... the new install, don't erase the /grub directory on the boot partition, ... When I install a new OS, I never mount the boot partition, and install ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: [opensuse] device.map - Darryl/Carl/Boyd
    ... > doing a restore or recovery of the XP installation. ... someone suggested a nice simple how-to to fix the mbr ... I could ask a question of the OP, did you have grub write to the MBR ... install and then re-booted, and it went into XP without showing the Grub ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: Grub and two distros
    ... It seems that I should install grub into the root partition for the ... this needs done for each installation so the distro knows where to update its related grub.conf/menu.lst file when kernels are upgraded. ... Usually all you need is to edit the grub.conf in the install where Grub is installed into the MBR. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: grub question
    ... I have two HD (sda sdb) and grub installed on the sda MBR. ... I want to install grub on the sdb MBR because the system is installed on ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)