USB harddisk

I have a Linux installation on a portable USB-harddisk. I wonder if it
was possible to make a bootable CD to boot the Linux on any computer.
Ie. even on machines without USB-boot option.Any ideas?

On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:51:00 GMT, Epe <no@spam.invalid> wrote:

[color=blue]
>I have a Linux installation on a portable USB-harddisk. I wonder if it
>was possible to make a bootable CD to boot the Linux on any computer.
>Ie. even on machines without USB-boot option.Any ideas?[/color]

What do you mean "boot the linux on any computer"? Are you talking about
booting the linux on *your* usb-hard drive, or the linux on some other
computer?

Why not use a distro designed to boot off a CD like mandriva move, knoppix,
etc.? Or just put lilo/grub and /boot (kernel, initrd) on the CD and have it use
the root on your usb hard drive.

AZ Nomad wrote:
[color=blue]
>On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:51:00 GMT, Epe <no@spam.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>
>[color=green]
>>I have a Linux installation on a portable USB-harddisk. I wonder if it
>>was possible to make a bootable CD to boot the Linux on any computer.
>>Ie. even on machines without USB-boot option.Any ideas?
>>
>>[/color]
>
>What do you mean "boot the linux on any computer"? Are you talking about
>booting the linux on *your* usb-hard drive, or the linux on some other
>computer?
>
>Why not use a distro designed to boot off a CD like mandriva move, knoppix,
>etc.? Or just put lilo/grub and /boot (kernel, initrd) on the CD and have it use
>the root on your usb hard drive.
>[/color]

Well, I would like to use my harddisk installation - so it is allways
configured as I like. Actually I allready tested with my grub CD.
However, grub apparently did not see the USB harddisk device. Maybe I
was not lookin the right way?

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.portable.]
On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:55:45 GMT, Epe staggered into the Black Sun and said:[color=blue]
> AZ Nomad wrote:[color=green]
>>On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:51:00 GMT, Epe <no@spam.invalid> wrote:[color=darkred]
>>>I have a Linux installation on a portable USB-harddisk. I wonder if
>>>it is possible to make a bootable CD to boot the Linux on any
>>>computer. Ie. even on machines without USB-boot option.Any ideas?[/color]
>>What do you mean "boot the linux on any computer"? Are you talking
>>about booting the linux on *your* usb-hard drive? Why not use a
>>distro designed to boot off a CD like mandriva move, knoppix, etc.?[/color]
> Well, I would like to use my harddisk installation - so it is always
> configured as I like. Actually I already tested with my grub CD.
> However, grub apparently did not see the USB harddisk device. Maybe I
> was not lookin the right way?[/color]

GRUB is a bootloader. As such, it is at the mercy of the BIOS when it
comes to reading sectors from various devices. At the GRUB prompt, what
did you get as possible completions for "(hd" ? The first IDE/SATA disk
should be 0, and USB devices will probably be numbered higher than any
IDE, SATA, or SCSI devices. Maybe.

However, if the BIOS of machine N doesn't support booting from USB Mass
Storage devices, *you can't do what you want to do* on machine N. Many
modern machines' BIOSes support booting from USB, but not every machine
does. It'll be another 2-3 years before you can take that capability
for granted, I think.

If I were you, I'd read up on how to remaster/customize Knoppix, and do
that. Any random x86 will be able to boot from CD. Use the USB device
as a data dump, or keep /usr, /var, and /home on the device and keep /
on the CD.

--
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
"Now do you understand why you shouldn't tease the Daleks, Beaver?"
"Gee, I'm sorry, Mom." --Triangle & Robert
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see

On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:55:45 GMT, Epe <no@spam.invalid> wrote:

[color=blue]
>AZ Nomad wrote:[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
>>On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:51:00 GMT, Epe <no@spam.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>[color=darkred]
>>>I have a Linux installation on a portable USB-harddisk. I wonder if it
>>>was possible to make a bootable CD to boot the Linux on any computer.
>>>Ie. even on machines without USB-boot option.Any ideas?
>>>
>>>[/color]
>>
>>What do you mean "boot the linux on any computer"? Are you talking about
>>booting the linux on *your* usb-hard drive, or the linux on some other
>>computer?
>>
>>Why not use a distro designed to boot off a CD like mandriva move, knoppix,
>>etc.? Or just put lilo/grub and /boot (kernel, initrd) on the CD and have it use
>>the root on your usb hard drive.
>>[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
>Well, I would like to use my harddisk installation - so it is allways
>configured as I like. Actually I allready tested with my grub CD.
>However, grub apparently did not see the USB harddisk device. Maybe I
>was not lookin the right way?[/color]

More likely the usb driver wasn't built into the kernel or it wasn't loaded
in the initrd.

Dances With Crows wrote:
[color=blue]
>["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.portable.]
>On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:55:45 GMT, Epe staggered into the Black Sun and said:
>
>[color=green]
>>AZ Nomad wrote:
>>
>>[color=darkred]
>>>On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:51:00 GMT, Epe <no@spam.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I have a Linux installation on a portable USB-harddisk. I wonder if
>>>>it is possible to make a bootable CD to boot the Linux on any
>>>>computer. Ie. even on machines without USB-boot option.Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>What do you mean "boot the linux on any computer"? Are you talking
>>>about booting the linux on *your* usb-hard drive? Why not use a
>>>distro designed to boot off a CD like mandriva move, knoppix, etc.?
>>>
>>>[/color]
>>Well, I would like to use my harddisk installation - so it is always
>>configured as I like. Actually I already tested with my grub CD.
>>However, grub apparently did not see the USB harddisk device. Maybe I
>>was not lookin the right way?
>>
>>[/color]
>
>GRUB is a bootloader. As such, it is at the mercy of the BIOS when it
>comes to reading sectors from various devices. At the GRUB prompt, what
>did you get as possible completions for "(hd" ? The first IDE/SATA disk
>should be 0, and USB devices will probably be numbered higher than any
>IDE, SATA, or SCSI devices. Maybe.
>
>However, if the BIOS of machine N doesn't support booting from USB Mass
>Storage devices, *you can't do what you want to do* on machine N. Many
>modern machines' BIOSes support booting from USB, but not every machine
>does. It'll be another 2-3 years before you can take that capability
>for granted, I think.
>
>If I were you, I'd read up on how to remaster/customize Knoppix, and do
>that. Any random x86 will be able to boot from CD. Use the USB device
>as a data dump, or keep /usr, /var, and /home on the device and keep /
>on the CD.
>
>
>[/color]
It looks like in my computer (hd,CD,floppy,net boot options) grub only
fills hd to the hd0 + fd0...fd7 !!.There is no floppy in the machine :)
.. I wonder if there was a bootmanager which would see the CD and USB
disk. My grub CD is made with eltorrito stage but wont load
menu.lst.However it boots ok if the kernel is on hd0.

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 18:20:57 GMT, Epe staggered into the Black Sun and said:[color=blue]
> Dances With Crows wrote:[color=green]
>>Epe wrote:[color=darkred]
>>>Well, I would like to use my harddisk installation - so it is always
>>>configured as I like. Actually I already tested with my grub CD.
>>>However, grub apparently did not see the USB harddisk device.[/color]
>>GRUB is a bootloader. As such, it is at the mercy of the BIOS when it
>>comes to reading sectors from various devices. At the GRUB prompt,
>>what did you get as possible completions for "(hd" ? The first
>>IDE/SATA disk should be 0, and USB devices will probably be numbered
>>
>>However, if the BIOS of machine N doesn't support booting from USB
>>Mass Storage devices, *you can't do what you want to do* on machine N.[/color]
> It looks like in my computer (hd,CD,floppy,net boot options)[/color]

Yep, if there's no "boot from USB" option in the BIOS, it's highly
unlikely that the BIOS can read stuff from a USB device.
[color=blue]
> grub only fills hd to the hd0 + fd0...fd7!![/color]

Yep.
[color=blue]
> I wonder if there [is] a bootmanager which [can] see the CD and USB
> disk.[/color]

If the BIOS doesn't support USB drives, no x86 bootloader can see them
without a great deal of screwing around--think "writing usbcore,
usb-uhci, and usb-storage in x86 real mode code".
[color=blue]
> My grub CD is made with eltorrito stage but [it won't] load menu.lst.
> However, it boots ok if the kernel is on hd0.[/color]

This sounds like you've got the config mangled in some way. Booting
from CD is a little strange because of Hysterical Raisins; you generally
have a 1.4 or 2.8M floppy image on the ISO, and you pass that to mkisofs
-b . GRUB's root and the kernel that you're loading have to live within
that floppy image IIRC. There's a way to get a larger image size; check
mkisofs's man page for the -hard-disk-boot option. I haven't fooled
around with this that much though, so take with a grain of salt and use
a CD-RW for your bootable CD fiddling until you get something that
works. HTH anyway,

--
"Depress the button," it said. Gloria looked at the button. "You're
a very ugly button," she began. --Phil Janes, _The Galaxy Game_
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see