GRUB problem: Booting Linux from USB Disk 2346

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:01:30 -0700, Noelle

You probably could've fixed the grub loader only, without reinstalling the OS. That's okay, (water under the bridge), you're almost up and running now.

I also agree that a failed install was responsible for the "GRUB" message. If you had attempted to boot with nothing installed on the MBR, then you would have seen nothing (i.e. no "GRUB", just a hang after the POST.

As for finishing up this project, and making your USB disk bootable, you will most likely need an initrd with the specific modules included. Making an initrd is distribution-kernel dependant. But generally, you will need modules to do the following:

1. Activate USB controller 2. Add support for storage devices 3. Add support for filesystem in use on root

Also, note that USB devices require some wait time (sleep) before the kernel can start using them.

For a recent 2.6 kernel, and a fairly new USB 2.0 controller,I needed these modules:

ehcihcd usbstorage exportfs xfs

Checklib-modules-(uname -v)-modules.dep for other modules dependancies you might need. For example, it is a surprise that xfs is depandant on exportfs.

I wrote this recently which describes a similar problem. I tested booting Slackware (which you are not using, too bad ;-) ), when installed on a USB stick and posted the method here:

and I corrected and expanded on a few things here:

-- Douglas Mayne