Installing ubuntu on a USB hd

[Martin Pitt]

Hi Francesco!

On 2004-10-01  9:15 +0200, Francesco Zamboni wrote:

> I'd like to install the new ubuntu (that I like really a lot) on a
> usb hd, to being able to use it for maintenance with the hundreds of
> (cd-less and floppy-less) pc I've to administer (thing that at the
> moment I do it with a knoppix). 

Indeed a live CD does not seem too bad for this purpose. The final
release will also have a life CD.

> Now, I successfully installed it on that external drive, but it
> refuse to restart going on kernel panic. I presume the cause is
> being unable to load usb drivers before attempting to mount root...
> on the net I've found scarce documentation on how to proceed
> rebuilding the initrd to include that drivers... somebody could
> point me to some resource on the web, and tell me if ubuntu has some
> particularity in this regard?

Personally I would not fiddle with an initrd, but this is a matter of
taste. I would just recompile my own kernel. Google should have a lot
of tutorials if you never done this. The critical point is to
statically compile in everything you need for booting (i. e. in the
kernel config, select 'Y'es, not 'm'odule; modules can be loaded when
the kernel runs, but not at boot):

- you need compiled-in support for the file systems you use
  (ext3/reiserfs/whatever); Ubuntu's standard kernel has modules for
  everything (only static ext3)

- you need compiled-in usb support, including "usb-storage"

Good luck!

Martin

-- 
Martin Pitt                       http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer            http://www.ubuntulinux.org
Debian GNU/Linux Developer       http://www.debian.org
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