Re: Grub on USB
- From: Douglas Mayne <doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:02:43 -0600
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:07:14 +0200, Ravishankar S wrote:
Caveat: I am not running Ubuntu.
"Douglas Mayne" <doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.08.16.15.58.54.963484@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:03:41 +0200, Ravishankar S wrote:chipset.
Hello,Are you trying to boot a GNU/Linux distribution which has been installed
How can I install grub onto a USB drive so that I can have grub shell at
boot time. At present I dont have linux , only Vista.
Kind Regards,
Ravishankar
on the USB disk? If so, then grub may help. I have a grub CD image
available for download. It was made according to the instructions which
are shown along with the grub documentation.
http://tinyurl.com/5ququ
If you want to _install_ GNU/Linux on the USB disc, then this may not be
the right tool. In that case, I'd advise using your distribution's setup
program. Be advised that you may need an initrd to boot from a USB
This isn't exactly what you asked for, and I know of no method to install
grub from Windows. However, if you can boot from the CD, then you may
achieve your goal, whatever that may be.
The instructions for getting the grub bootable CD that I made, along with
the license, disclaimers, etc. are here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.setup/msg/602040b59e1eac50
p.s. I like your daughter's singing and piano work. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Jones
hi doug,
thanks for the info.
firstly to set a notion right: I am not Pt. Ravishankar, the sitar maestro.
Lucky enough to share name with him! The Pt. stands for Pandit (a close
meaning is: expert).
Norah is great as is his other daughter Anoushka shankar.
I doubt if he would have ever installed any OS let alone grub or Linux , ha
ha.
Well, to the problem next:
I have installed ubuntu (fiesty fawn) on to a partition on the harddisk
(ext2 fs). But i dont want to install grub on my harddisk to have a dual
boot system.
Instead I want install grub on to usb drive and then boot linux off the hard
disk. I did change install the grub onto usb drive during ubuntu
installation. On restart, it boots off the usb , and prints GRUB and the
freezes.
Kind Regards,
Ravishankar
If the grub menu is not displayed, then it is not installed correctly.
This appears to be the situation with the hang you describe. When it is
installed correctly, it goes through some bootstrap stages, ending with
when menu is displayed. So, if Ubuntu's installer did not properly install
grub, for whatever reason, you will need to do some debugging of what
went wrong. BTW, one thing which can cause confusion is if your system
has an internal SATA drive, and you are switching the BIOS to boot from
USB, then back to SATA for Windows. The drive ordering can be different
under that condition, than when booting from SATA. I am not sure
exactly what went wrong because there are a lot of potential errors in
this situation. Specifying the location of the bootloader is a
daunting problem to get right 100% of the time. That is one reason why
most GNU/Linux distributions have always offered to make a boot floppy as
a final step of the setup process. The setup programs continue to make
this offer, even though most new computers are shipped without a floppy
drive. But without a floppy, or some other method to boot, you can be
locked out of your new setup. The grub CD that I mentioned (previous post)
may be of some help, if you can begin booting from an optical disk. Be
advised that that CD presents a bare interface to the user. When using
the CD, the user must specify the name of the kernel, the associated
kernel parameters, and the name of the initial ramdisk. If you are a new
user, then you may have trouble specifying those names, or just navigating
the grub shell which uses its own command set and drive nomenclature.
IMO, your best option now, especially if you are a new user, is to verify
what you have in place on the USB disk. You could do that by booting a
live CD, such as knoppix, slax, or your favorite diagnostic tool. From
that environment, you will still need to do some debugging to see what
went wrong. As I said I am not running Ubuntu, but when you boot the
rescue disc (and mount the usb partition with your ubuntu setup), I would
expect to see a kernel and initial ramdisk in the directory /mnt/.../boot.
There could be a /mnt/.../boot/grub directory which contains the grub
stage files and the grub menu, too. Someone else who has specific
Ubuntu experience will need to offer more concrete advice of what files
and pitfalls to look out for.
The advantage of using the LiveCD is that it may show that the only thing
which went awry in setup was installing the loader. Your kernel, your
initial ramdisk (with all modules), and your complete Ubuntu setup are in
place. In that case, the fix would be fairly easy. To fix could be as
simple as installing grub properly on the USB disk. (CAUTION: make sure of
your intended target for installing grub.) I always advise users to read
grub's documentation in advance of setting up. I know that advice is
widely ignored ;-). New users can avoid reading the doc's if their setup
is "within the norm." It appears, that your setup is just outside the
norm, and you may have to have a better understanding of what you are
trying to do at boot. Studying the grub manual can pay dividends in the
future, whenever there are problems installing.
Good luck!
--
Douglas Mayne
.
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