[ubuntu-us-mi] boot from Lucid USB partition on internal harddrive

[Robert Citek]

Got it to work by imaging and then using install-mbr to install a
simple boot loader into the MBR.

Specifically, I did this in a VBox OSE VM with a 10GB virtual drive
and the Lucid ISO:

booted the ISO
opened a terminal

sudo su -
# partition drive
echo -e "o\np\nn\np\n1\n1\n+2G\na\n1\nt\nb\np\nw" |
 fdisk  /dev/sda
ssh rwcitek at 10.1.1.101 'sudo dd if=/dev/sdc1 bs=1M' |
  dd of=/dev/sda1 bs=1M
apt-get update
apt-get install install-mbr
# install mbr boot loader
install-mbr /dev/sda
poweroff

10.1.1.101 is the IP of the host.  /dev/sdc1 is the first partition on
the USB device.  When I unattached the ISO and booted the VM, Lucid
booted up as though it was from the USB stick.

What seems necessary that isn't described clearly in the syslinux docs:

1) mbr needs to be installed in the MBR.  This simple boot loader
looks for the first "active" partition and loads its VBR.

2) partition needs to be flagged active.  Use the "a" command in fdisk
to set the active partition.

Still trying to see if I can move the partition elsewhere, e.g. sda2 or sda6

Regards,
- Robert

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Robert Citek <robert.citek at gmail.com> wrote:
> USB creator doesn't want to install to /dev/sda. <shakes head>  And
> the VBox OSE version with 8.04 doesn't have a virtual USB device.
> <shakes head>  And ssh from the guest to the host OS is abysmally
> slow. <shakes head>
>
> I know this can be done.  It's just a matter of finding the right mojo
> to make it work.
>
> But for now that's three strikes, which means it's time to do
> something else, e.g. clean the house.
>
> Regards,
> - Robert
>
> On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Robert Citek <robert.citek at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Actually, I want bios going to grub going to syslinux going to linux.
>>
>> But I suspect you are right in that grub may be the one throwing the
>> error and not syslinux.
>>
>> Will try to work this out in VM instead of a real machine.
>>
>> Regards,
>> - Robert
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 6:10 PM, Wolfger <wolfger at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Off the top of my head, I think the problem here is that grub can't
>>> find a kernel. The LiveUSB is meant to e called straight from bios,
>>> but you've got bios going to grub and grub trying to boot a linux
>>> install rather than a LiveUSB.
>>
>