I am about to apply this method to my pendrive and document the process here.
I have copied and pasted this from the Dreamlinux forums, with thanks to BakUp
Link here.
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[HowTo] Create A Grub Boot CD For A DL-USB Pendrive
« on: September 15, 2008, 05:46:39 PM »
Note : This thread was deleted due to performance problems on some systems.
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My testing this procedure for DL 3.5r4 is complete and there are no changes.
For anyone that wants a Boot CD to boot your DL 3.3 USB pendrive, even on a computer that the bios does not support USB pendrives, the following has worked very well for me:
First use the "Pen-Drive DL Installer" to install DL to a USB Pen-Drive (USB flash Drive)
Then in a terminal:
sudo -s
mkdir iso
mkdir -p iso/boot/grub
cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito iso/boot/grub
Next drag and drop the following from a root file manager:
Copy all files from your DL 3.3 USB pendrive /grub directory to the new /iso/boot/grub directory that you just created above.
Now edit the menu.lst in your new /iso/boot/grub directory, comment out this line at the top:
#gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/grub/message.dream
and then edit the rest to look simular to this:
title Dreamlinux 3.3 USB XFCE (hd1,0)
kernel (hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz lang=us ramdisk_size=100000 init=linuxrc splash=silent nomce quiet boot_image=(hd1,0)/modules/base/basex wm=xfce vga=791 eeePC=no
initrd (hd1,0)/boot/initrd.gz
title Dreamlinux 3.3 USB XFCE (hd2,0)
kernel (hd2,0)/boot/vmlinuz lang=us ramdisk_size=100000 init=linuxrc splash=silent nomce quiet boot_image=(hd2,0)/modules/base/basex wm=xfce vga=791 eeePC=no
initrd (hd2,0)/boot/initrd.gz
You will have to edit only your USB pendrive location in the menu.lst, example (hdx,x)
If a computer has one harddrve, then it will be: (hd1,0)
If a computer has two harddrves, then it will be: (hd2.0)
Both of these then will be shown in the grub menu when you boot. Choose the one that applies to the computer that you are booting.
This will cover any computer with at least two hard drives. For computers with more then two hard drives, that will of course need additional grub entries.
The title lines you can change to how you want it to read.
then make your iso:
mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot
-boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o grub.iso iso
All of your new directories and files you created above will be located in your /home/user_name directory.
The iso you created above will be named: grub.iso.....that also will be in your /home/user_name directory. You can rename this iso to whatever you want and last burn the iso to a CD-R or CD-RW media.
If other methods have failed you, this Grub Boot CD should be able to boot your DL 3.3 USB pendrive on any computer that does not support USB in the bios.
Have fun !
regards,
BakUp
Just adding this bit of information about how to prepare a USB pendrive for use with an installed Linux.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddw429pm_167czfdzwg2
This should prevent some problems when installing a Linux OS to a USB pendrive/flashdrive.
Here's another How-to, this time for CrunchBang Linux : --
Make a USB Boot CD for CrunchBang Linux
The following tutorial will enable you to create a USB Boot CD that can be used to Boot CrunchBang Linux from a USB Flash Drive on systems that do not natively support booting from USB. The USB Boot CD uses a grub bootloader to launch the vmlinuz kernel and initrd from the CD, loading the necessary USB drivers, and then proceeds to locate and extract the compressed filesystem from the flash drive. CrunchBang Linux is a unique remix based on Ubuntu.
USB Boot CD for CrunchBang Linux creation essentials:
- PC with a BIOS that does not support booting from USB [Note : this is not essential, in fact, booting this way even on a system that does boot from USB can save problems with the BIOS and leaves the system untouched.]
- CrunchBang Live CD
- Working CD Drive and USB Port
- Flash drive with CrunchBang preinstalled
How to Create a CD to Boot CrunchBang from USB
- Insert the CrunchBang Live CD and restart, booting from the CD
- Open a terminal and type mkdir -p usbcdcb/boot/grub
- Type cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito usbcdcb/boot/grub
- Type gedit usbcdcb/boot/grub/menu.lst
- Add the following information to your menu.lst file and save it
title Run CrunchBang from USB DISK
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
boot
- Type cp /cdrom/casper/initrd.gz ~/usbcdcb/boot
- Type cp /cdrom/casper/vmlinuz ~/usbcdcb/boot
- Type mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o usbcdcb.iso usbcdcb
- Burn the usbcdcb.iso to a CD
Booting from the USB Boot CD for CrunchBang
- Shutdown your computer
- Insert the USB Boot CD and your CrunchBang USB drive
- Set your BIOS or Startup Menu to boot from CD
- Start your computer (booting from the CD)
The USB Boot CD should load the necessary USB drivers, locate filesystem.squashfs on your flash drive, and then proceed to boot CrunchBang from the USB device.
linux on usb harddisk (using FC3) (I am writing this document; not finished yet) [Copied and pasted here, as at Monday, August 30 2010]
Think of Linux on your usb harddisk. You can take your disk anywhere and start linux if a computer is available.
Hardware requirement:
PC computer able to boot from usb harddisk
Not compatible with computer installed with SATA harddisk
How does it work?
Use a bootable CD to boot linux os on a usb harddisk, or
Boot directly from a usb harddisk containing linux os
Tools you need:
e2label: partition labelling tool (if using ext2 / ext3 filesystem)
grub / grub-install: an installation script for grub which is an OS bootloader.
mkisofs: create an hybrid ISO9660/JOLIET filesystem
cdrecord: record a bootable CD from an iso file
Making a GRUB bootable CD-ROM
From: Making-a-GRUB-bootable-CD-ROM.html
For booting from a CD-ROM, GRUB uses a special Stage 2 called stage2_eltorito. The only GRUB files you need to have in your bootable CD-ROM are this stage2_eltorito and optionally a config file menu.lst or grub.conf. You don't need to use stage1 or stage2, because El Torito is quite different from the standard boot process.
Here is an example of procedures to make a bootable CD-ROM image. First, make a top directory for the bootable image, say, iso:
mkdir iso
Make a directory for GRUB:
mkdir -p iso/boot/grub
Copy the file stage2_eltorito:
cp /usr/share/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito iso/boot/grub
If desired, make the config file menu.lst under iso/boot/grub (see Configuration), and copy any files and directories for the disc to the directory iso/.
Finally, make a ISO9660 image file like this:
mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o grub.iso iso
This produces a file named grub.iso, which then can be burned into a CD (or a DVD). mkisofs has already set up the disc to boot from the boot/grub/stage2_eltorito file, so there is no need to setup GRUB on the disc. (Note that the -boot-load-size 4 bit is required for compatibility with the BIOS on many older machines.)
You can use the device (cd) to access a CD-ROM in your config file. This is not required; GRUB automatically sets the root device to (cd) when booted from a CD-ROM. It is only necessary to refer to (cd) if you want to access other drives as well.
Make your own Linux RAMdisk (included usb2.0 harddisk drivers)
Make your own linux RAM disk (included usb2.0 harddisk drivers) that is initialized by the boot loader before the kernel is started.
mkinitrd --preload=ehci-hcd --preload=usb-storage --preload=scsi_mod --preload=sd_mod /boot/usbinitrd.img KERNEL-NUMBER
ehci-hcd, scsi_mod and sd_mod are the drivers needed for USB2.0 harddisks
contents of grub.conf
default=0
timeout=25
title LOMD 1 on CETUS
root (cd)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=LABEL=cetus rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/usbinitrd.img
to burn an iso image file
/usr/bin/cdrecord -v speed=16 -data cd.iso
note
monitor resolution:
vesa:
HorizSync 30-85
VertRefresh 48-120
use /sbin/service kudzu start to check for new hardware and remove any not suitable ones.
use /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg -configure to load all video driver modules, probes for available hardware, and write out an initial xorg.conf.new file based on what was detected.
Comments (3)
Paul G. Taylor said
at 9:43 am on Nov 17, 2008
This is not currently working for me. I have tried on two other computers, Frank's and Eileen's, and neither recognised the USB Pendrive at boot-up time. 'Non-existent Drive' message given.
Therefore the missing piece seems to be the USB drivers that would need to be included in the boot-disk so that, at that stage, the USB device can be found by the system and booting transferred.
Paul G. Taylor said
at 9:46 am on Nov 17, 2008
Additionally, I fluked running the pendrive on Marion's computer. After trying unsuccessfully to boot the pendrive, after I gave up I typed in 'reboot' in GRUB and to my surprise found the computer booting into the pendrive installation. I do not know how this happened and cannot reproduce the result. However, when I rebooted next time and went to boot MS Windows XP, the system failed to boot and I had to change the boot system using the Super-GRUB Disk.
Paul G. Taylor said
at 12:08 pm on Nov 17, 2008
Posted about this on Ubuntu forums here : --
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6194274#post6194274
Monday 17 Nov 2008.
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