install F11 ON a USB-HDD

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Daniel Kirsten wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I installed F11 on a USB-HDD.  I used a network-install-CD  and 
> allowed the installer to use the entire disk.  I did not change the 
> partition layout.   I installed the bootloader to the same USB-drive. 
> 
> The installation seemed to be successful, but I cannot boot from 
> this USB-HDD.    WHen I turn on the computer, it reads a bit from the 
> USB-HDD, abd then it boots immediately from the built in HDD.
> 
One thing you have to be careful about when installing to a USB
drive is that the drive mapping when you boot from the USB drive is
different then when you are doing the install. During the install,
the BIOS has mapped the drives with the internal drive before the
USB drive. But when you boot off the USB drive, it is the first
drive. Because of this, Grub is looking at the wrong drive for the
rest of its code. (Grub uses the BIOS for disk access.)

In your case, it looks like the USB drive is BIOS drive 83 or
/dev/sdc during install. But it is BIOS drive 81 or /dev/sda when
you boot from it. I have not looked at it in F11, but in F10, you
can tell Grub about this so it install correctly at the end of the
expert install.

You can fix this by booting in the rescue mode from the install CD,
(Can you do this with the netinstall CD?) letting it mount your
partitions. Cchroot to the mounted system, edit
/boot/grub/device.map, and re-install grub.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

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