Installing to a USB Drive without a HD and not making it a "live CD".

[Goh Lip]

On 01/30/2010 11:45 PM, Knapp wrote:
> Hello,  I have a computer with a dead HD. I can boot it with the live
> Xubuntu CD (other don't work, to big). I can make the USB 8mb drive
> into a copy of the CD and boot it just fine but when I try to install
> to the USB Drive, the computer will not boot. How do I make the
> computer boot from the USB drive as if it were a HD with a normal
> install on it?

Douglas, when booting from usb, does the grub2 menu screen appear? If it 
appears, go to command prompt ('c') and
type "ls"; note if it is (hd0,1) or (hd1,1).
If both appear, your hd is 'not dead' technically, then type
"search -f /boot/grub/grub.cfg" and note output again.

then type
grub>linux (hd0,x)/vmlinuz root=sdax
grub>initrd (hd0,x)/initrd.img
grub>boot

note: if (hd1,x), then change sdax to sdbx

When booted up go to terminal and type
sudo grub-mkconfig

recheck output that the correct (hd0,x) is used as similar to your 
search and check uuid number of usb stick to be sure with fdisk.

If okay, then type
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

> I hope this is clear. Maybe I need to make my own
> bootalble ISO with the files I need? For example an ISO with all the
> updates? Don't know how to do that ether. In any case I have a
> complete system installed to the USB; if only I could get it to boot.
> Thanks all.

Hopefully, that won't be necessary.

regards - goh lip

-- 
Whey do we live? To prove that some things in nature have no purpose. :)