On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 01:41:41AM -0700, William Shu wrote:
> I want to install the full operating systems (SL 6, SL 5.5 and some variant of ubuntu), together with grub, on an external USB hard drive. This is so I can boot from the OS's, on different machines, whenever I need to. (A kind of portable operating sytems environment. For, I seem to have issues with LiveCD/DVD on usb sticks, especially on windoze machines, etc.)
I have some information here:
http://www.triumf.info/wiki/DAQwiki/index.php/VME-CPU
These are instructions for making USB-bootable media for VME SBCs (they have no SATA or IDE
connectors - only network or USB).
The instructions assume you already have a runnable OS image available - I make
mine by cloning (rsync) of a running system that has similar configuration
or by running the SL/RHEL installer (but some of our SBCs have only 512MB of memory,
not have enough to run the SL installer).
SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX is used because GRUB was observed to malfunction in funny ways,
for example, boots fine if USB disk is plugged directly, but not if plugged through
a USB hub. As a bonus, EXTLINUX can automatically select and boot the correct kernel
depending on the type of machine.
One other gotcha to remember - older versions of the SL/RHEL installer did not
include the usb-storage module into the initrd, so after running the installer
one got an unbootable machine. I think SL5.6 installer fixed this, but I am not sure.
If not fixed, you have to take your disk to another machine and recreate the initrd
manually, with forcing the inclusion of usb modules.
K.O.
>
> Any things to watch out for in trying to install and use such an external USB hard drive?
>
> I already learned the hard way, for multiple OS's, to use labelled disk partitions in /etc/fstab. More generally, how is hardware mapped or handled so that a given OS on the external drive *safely* boots/reboots from different machines [of the same architecture]?
>
> Unfortunately, the only helpful sites I've found date back a long time, e.g.:
> http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~eesridr/extlinux.html
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=80811
> and so its not clear if one has to tinker with, say, mkinitrd in more recent OS versions.
>
> Also, Troy's response in thread (Re: Only One Disk ??) is for installation USB's. (http://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/6x/build/sites).
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> William.
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--
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada
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