Is making GRUB use USB device possible with NO BIOForum: USB booting Topic: Is making GRUB use USB device possible with NO BIO started by: shinobi Posted by shinobi on April 08 2007,00:05
Here's the deal; I have a USB Key with a working Linux install, that's not the issue here.Problem is, The BIOS on this computer isn't, and can't be made USB boot compatible. I have successfully installed GRUB next to Windows with boot.ini, and that part works currently. I don't have a floppy drive, and this computer doesn't read CD-R that well. And that would pretty much ruin the fun of using a USB key too boot with at that. What I can't solve currently, is how to make GRUB fire up some sort of USB drivers, so as to reach the USB key. I need grub to install USB drivers in pre-os mode, whatever that's called in technical terms. Grub is installed in the C:\grub\ folder, wich seems to be default. I've searched these forums, but none match my request exactly, or they can do with floppies, or assume you already have Linux running... Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 08 2007,03:33
You could copy the original kernel and minirt to your hard drive, and have grub boot off those, and use the fromusb (or fromhd) boot/cheatcode (see wiki page for more info)
Posted by shinobi on April 08 2007,10:55
If I copy that from the USB, how do I point to them with Grub? Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 09 2007,04:33
Well they would be on your hard drive, so you can use any regular dsl grub entry that points to that partition - just add whichever bootcode you want to use.
Posted by curaga on April 09 2007,07:45
here's an example where you put them in c:\grub:title DSL from usb root (hd0,0) kernel /grub/linux24 fromusb initrd /grub/minirt24.gz Posted by shinobi on April 09 2007,09:05
Now that is what I call a helpful post =) Everyone just assumes I´ve had a few years experience with this when they write comments.. I'm going to try that with DSL, does it matter if I put another kind of linux on my usb key? As far as I understand it, Im loading a kernel, wich I keep throughout from this procedure? Or does it just get discarded when starting to load from usb? If so I could just do a standard installation to bring with me. Posted by shinobi on April 09 2007,09:38
Ok, I adjusted that to work with MiniMe (PCLinuxOS)And a majority of the stuff loads, but it complains about not finding the LiveCD and it looks at /dev/hdc (and I don't know if that's the usb) This computer only has one harddrive and partition. Is it likely that is the USB disk, and do I need to copy more files to drive than initrd and vmlinuz? Posted by curaga on April 09 2007,12:03
Yep, that loads the kernel which you keep, and then the files from usb.Probably you can boot only Knoppix and DSL on those, other distros may or may not work. hdc means Ide second channel master (so that cannot be usb, it's your cd drive) Usb is most probably /dev/sda1... Posted by shinobi on April 09 2007,19:44
Ok, then I did the right thing switching to the distro I liked. How can I tell it to point to the USB, what file would I edit? It does go through the USB devices on boot, so I would assume that part worked alright. Posted by curaga on April 10 2007,15:20
You mean you now have DSL? I have no idea about PCLinuxOs...DSL should load properly with the codes you already have in menu.lst.... But if you installed DSL by a zip image from pendrivelinux, no idea either... |