Thanks for all your feedback guys, so based on your feedback that grub is
confused i thought i give it a go to prep the USB harddrive with the
netinstall image instead of running it from the USB stick.
So i did the following (from another Debian)
zcat boot.img.rz > /dev/sda
mount /dev/sda /mnt
cp initrd.gz /mnt (from the netinstall)
umount /mnt
And this time i only booted the machine with the USB HD attached and the
installer booted and run happily from the USB HD
i proceeded with the installation and selected /dev/sda as the partion to
put grub on
Reboot.... and still the same problem is there (no boot entries). also tried
the grub commands suggested but when i do root ( <tab> i only get fd0. and
the finds dosn't work
Then i tried to install grub on
/dev/sda1
dosn't boot at all
making the partition reiserfs instead of ext3
Grub error 17
after doing a rescue and grub-install /dev/sda
Grub error 18
So my guess is either
a) The USB-HD isn't supported ( which seems a bit unlikely as it boots the
installer )
b) Some weird restriction exist in the hardware to boot from a USB-HD
c) Im doing some stupid mistake that I'm not realizing
I can't really come up with anything what to do next if you guys have any
more suggestions please let me know
Thanks
/Mikael
On 9/12/07, John W. Foster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Tuesday 11 September 2007 16:26, Mikael Rudberg wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > Im clutching at straws here, i just purchased an Zonbu (mini pc running
> Via
> > C7/512 MB ram) and i'm trying to install Debian 4.0 on external USB
> drive.
> > I've prepped an USB stick with the net install image. Boot's from it and
> > installs debian fine from what i can see
> > When i reboot i see that bios detects the USB-HD properly but instead of
> > showing the kernel to boot it shows only the "Mininmal BASH like"
> version
> > of grub and no selection box.
> > I tried to reinstall this time manually making the partitions on the
> USB-HD
> >
> > sda1 /boot (ext2) 100 MB bootable
> > sda2 / (ext3) 20 GB
> > sda3 /swap
> >
> > Same issue again. tried it a couple of more times and once i got "Error
> > 18" in GRUB
> > I'm at a loss as what can be wrong. I tried to search the net but can't
> > find information that help me out here.
> > So if anyone have any suggestions or any experience installing Debian on
> > "Zonbu" i would be really greatful
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Mikael
> ---------------------------------------------------
> grub needs to be installed {written to the mbr} on the disk from which
> your
> machines bios is set to boot.
>
> easy:
> If you want it to boot from the usb stick then set your system bios to
> this
> boot order
> 1 cd or floppy
> 2 usb stick
> 3 hard drive
>
> then put grub on the usb stick: this will only change the order of choices
> that your machines bios has to make to boot. You will not write
> instructions
> to the mbr here, only the usb stick; Your machines bios will handle the
> rest.
>
> More difficult:
> if you want to leave your bios alone then you must install grub on the
> hard
> drive that your system will boot from 'not the usb stick'; then edit the
> grub
> to the boot order selection that you want.
> Best wishes: BTW This is what I did on my machine: grub on the main boot
> drive
> has a selection of 4 operating systems to boot to.
> Best wishes!
> --
> John W. Foster
>
>
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