On 03/16/2011 03:41 AM, William Shu wrote:
> Dear All,
> 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.)
>
> 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.
>
Hi,
I have a full distro on a USB stick. It's currently Fedora 13 instead
of SL6, but the procedure is the exact same.
Do a normal install with the USB hard drive plugged in and selected as
the main hard drive, and with all your partitions on it. The only thing
you have to be careful of is where grub is put, and what order grub
thinks the drives are.
http://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/6x/installing/boot.loader.configuration.html
On SL6, be sure to select "Change device" and make sure your USB drive
is marked as the "First BIOS drive". Then make sure it's set to install
the boot loader on the MBR of our USB hard drive.
http://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/6x/installing/large/boot.loader.5.png
I won't comment on putting multiple Full Installs on your USB drive,
because I only have one on mine.
Troy
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Troy Dawson [log in to unmask] (630)840-6468
Fermilab ComputingDivision/SCF/FEF/SLSMS Group
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