zfs discuss - Aug 2008 - Booting from a USB HD

I installed OS 2008.05 onto a USB HD (WD Passport), and was able to boot from it
(knock on wood!).

However, when plugged into a different machine, I then am unable to boot from
it.

Is there any permission issue that I must address on this ZFS HD before I can
boot from it?
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

W. Wayne Liauh wrote:
> I installed OS 2008.05 onto a USB HD (WD Passport), and was able to boot
from it (knock on wood!).
>
> However, when plugged into a different machine, I then am unable to boot
from it.
>
> Is there any permission issue that I must address on this ZFS HD before I
can boot from it?
>   
Could you provide a bit more information as to where it fails ? Does the 
new system discover it ? Do you see the grub menu ? 

-Sanjay
>  
>  
> This message posted from opensolaris.org
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>

> W. Wayne Liauh wrote:
> > I installed OS 2008.05 onto a USB HD (WD Passport),
> and was able to boot from it (knock on wood!).
> >
> > However, when plugged into a different machine, I
> then am unable to boot from it.
> >
> > Is there any permission issue that I must address
> on this ZFS HD before I can boot from it?
> >   
> Could you provide a bit more information as to where
> it fails ? Does the 
> new system discover it ? Do you see the grub menu ? 
> 
> -Sanjay
> 
Thanks a whole bunch for responding to my question.

After trying it on another desktop machine (and failed), I was led to suspect
that the problem may be caused by the system (computer) not delivering enough
juice (electrical current) to the USB HD.  This is one of the first generation
portable USB HDs and it may need more current to operate than the later models.

So, before going thru the whole process of re-installing OS 08.05 on a newer
version of the WD Passport, I decided to give this old portable disc another
try.

After canceled my dinner appointment, I plugged this OS 08.05 installed USB HB
into an IBM ThinkPad R61i.  This time it worked beautifully.  (The squeaking
noise never sounded so pleasant. :-)  )

I always believe that using a customized USB HD will be one of the best ways to
effectively (and more convincingly) propagate OpenSolaris.  More investigations
are necessary, but, in short, the problem I experienced definitely has nothing
to do with ZFS permission issues.

Thanks again for the response.
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Looks like my naive conclusion was wrong.  This morning I installed os08.05 into
a 4GB flash stick plugged to an HP 6700 notebook (Intel C2D, bought this week). 
This machine boots and runs very nicely from this os08.05 flash stick.

However, I was unable to use this flash stick to boot an Athlon X2 machine.  Its
MBR was read--and the GRUB options were shown on the screen.  But when I
selected an option (e.g., the rc3), the machine would go into the restart mode,
and the GRUB screen would be shown again.  This process can be repeated again
and again.  It seems that the bootloader was not able to read the kernel from
the flash stick.

Also I noticed that with the Athlon X2 machine (which is about two years old),
the os08.05-installed flash stick was NOT treated as a removable disc.  Instead,
I had to move its boot priority up in the __hard drive__ category in order for
it to be recognized by the POST process.  This contrasts with the C2D notebook,
which recognizes the flash stick as a removable medium.
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

W. Wayne Liauh wrote:
...
> However, I was unable to use this flash stick to boot an Athlon X2
> machine.  Its MBR was read--and the GRUB options were shown on the
> screen.  But when I selected an option (e.g., the rc3), the machine
> would go into the restart mode, and the GRUB screen would be shown
> again.  This process can be repeated again and again.  It seems that
> the bootloader was not able to read the kernel from the flash stick.
>
> Also I noticed that with the Athlon X2 machine (which is about two
> years old), the os08.05-installed flash stick was NOT treated as a
> removable disc.  Instead, I had to move its boot priority up in the
> __hard drive__ category in order for it to be recognized by the POST
> process.  This contrasts with the C2D notebook, which recognizes the
> flash stick as a removable medium.
First off, please get a real mail client that doesn''t send huge lines. 
Thankfully Thunderbird has re-wrap that handles quotations.

Your problem is almost certainly that your boot device order differs, 
probably due to thw BIOS differences you mention. Go to the grub command 
line, and do a "find /platform/i86pc/multiboot". Pay attention to the 
hd(n,m) it prints (I hope!) and edit your boot entry to match. Once 
you''re up in multi-user, add a new boot entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst
for
your alternate device numbering.

FYI, this is a generic x86 grub problem - Linux behaves the same way.

-- 
Carson

...
> > However, I was unable to use this flash stick to
> boot an Athlon X2
> > machine.  Its MBR was read--and the GRUB options
> were shown on the
> > screen.  But when I selected an option (e.g., the
> rc3), the machine
> > would go into the restart mode, and the GRUB screen
> would be shown
> > again.  This process can be repeated again and
> again.  It seems that
> > the bootloader was not able to read the kernel from
> the flash stick.
> >
> > Also I noticed that with the Athlon X2 machine
> (which is about two
> > years old), the os08.05-installed flash stick was
> NOT treated as a
> > removable disc.  Instead, I had to move its boot
> priority up in the
> > __hard drive__ category in order for it to be
> recognized by the POST
> > process.  This contrasts with the C2D notebook,
> which recognizes the
> > flash stick as a removable medium.
> 
> First off, please get a real mail client that doesn''t
> send huge lines. 
> Thankfully Thunderbird has re-wrap that handles
> quotations.
> 
> Your problem is almost certainly that your boot
> device order differs, 
> probably due to thw BIOS differences you mention. Go
> to the grub command 
> line, and do a "find /platform/i86pc/multiboot". Pay
> attention to the 
> hd(n,m) it prints (I hope!) and edit your boot entry
> to match. Once 
> you''re up in multi-user, add a new boot entry to
> /boot/grub/menu.lst for 
> your alternate device numbering.
> 
> FYI, this is a generic x86 grub problem - Linux
> behaves the same way.
> 
> -- 
> Carson
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discu
> ss

Thanks for the reply.

For some reason, it took __several__ days for your reply to appear in the Jive
forum--and, as a result, I almost missed it.  It''s always too late now
(past 10 pm Hawaii time).  I will try your suggestion this weekend.

Regarding the "HUGE" lines, I have received similar complaints in the
past but I really don''t have any idea what''s going on.  If I
use Thunderbird, it would create a new thread every time I post a reply.  And
when viewed from the Jive web forum, it would look like I was forking and
graffitiing the entire place--making me look extremely stupid.

If, OTOH, I use the Jive reply button, as you and many others have pointed out,
my reply may continue on a huge, never-ending long line.  I run os 08.05 and I
use FF2&3.  Nothing exorbitant.  Everything looks perfectly normal to me.  
The Jive forum has a reply button, and I really don''t see why it should
cause any problem.  (B/c of the large volume of mails, I prefer exclusively
using the Jive forum to communicate.)

on this aspect (& probably only on this aspect), the Jive forum is the most
stupid forum on this planet AFAIC.  I understand there are legitimate reasons
why this is so bad, but to those who are not aware of what''s going on
(perhaps more than 99% of the forum participants), the Jive forum looks
inexcusably stupid.

Thanks again for your kind help, & please be sure that my rants are not
against you.
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

> Your problem is almost certainly that your boot
> device order differs, 
> probably due to thw BIOS differences you mention. Go
> to the grub command 
> line, and do a "find /platform/i86pc/multiboot". Pay
> attention to the 
> hd(n,m) it prints (I hope!) and edit your boot entry
> to match. Once 
> you''re up in multi-user, add a new boot entry to
> /boot/grub/menu.lst for 
> your alternate device numbering.
> 
I did a grub> find/platform/i86pc/multiboot, and it returned (hd0,0,a), as I
had expected.

But, nevertheless, I added (hd0,0,a) to the two grub boot lines (for both
kernel$ and module$). Same results.  Grub still won''t boot from the USB
flash stick.  I suspect the USB driver may be lacking during stage 2.

> FYI, this is a generic x86 grub problem - Linux
> behaves the same way.
> 
Yes, I remember having a similar "won''t boot from USB disk"
problem with SuSE 10.3.
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org