| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
NubsMcalichi
n00b
Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Richmond, VA USA
|
 Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject: Booting External USB from Floppy for Newbies |
 |
|
I have been trying to install Gentoo on an external USB drive and have realized that my BIOS doesnt support USB booting. I decided to boot from a floppy to my USB drive using GRUB. I've been looking around the web for a few days now and have a pretty good idea about how to go about getting it running, but I do have a few questions. I know that I need to install Gentoo following the handbook directions, but how do I go about getting GRUB on the floppy? Do I need to install GRUB on the USB drive, copy the needed files to the floppy, then install GRUB to the floppy? Or should I use the grub floppy image and just configure grub.conf correctly?
I may just be completely confused and not making any sense now because I am fairly new to Linux, but any help you could provide will be most appreciated. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
01mf02
Veteran
Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 1070
Location: Innsbruck, Austria
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 11:57 am Post subject: |
|
|
At first, welcome to the forums!
I would at first install GRUB to the floppy, then install another GRUB on the USB drive. The GRUB on the floppy should call the one on the USB drive, which should start your Linux on the USB drive.
Get GRUB on a floppy |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
NubsMcalichi
n00b
Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Richmond, VA USA
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I'm still a bit confused on how to get grub to point to the sda drive. Would the grub.conf file below work? I realize that I will need to change the (hd0,0) to match the decive.map.
GRUB.CONF:
default 0
timeout 5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 2005.0 - Kernel 2.6.11
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel<version> root=/dev/ram0 real_root=/dev/sda1 init=/linuxrc
initrd /initrd<version>
Thanks |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cyrillic
Watchman
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 7313
Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| NubsMcalichi wrote: | | I'm still a bit confused on how to get grub to point to the sda drive. |
If your BIOS doesn't support USB booting, then GRUB can't access /dev/sda because GRUB uses the BIOS to access the drive you are booting from.
One way around this is to put the kernel on the floppy too. This may be a challenge, because you need to configure a very lean kernel if you want it to actually fit on the floppy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
NubsMcalichi
n00b
Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 9
Location: Richmond, VA USA
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 11:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
My BIOS actually does see my USB though, it just can't boot from it. The USB drive shows up in the device.map. Here is the print out from it:
[/b]
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda
(hd1) /dev/hdb
(hd2) /dev/sda |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Installing Gentoo
