Arch Linux

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

Hi....Whew. loving it here!

OBJECTIVE: to install ARCH onto a 20 gig USB external USB2 drive. No persistence, live vibe though.

So, I've seen and tried Faun (lovely!) and the other two live/usb type install versions. both brilliant.

THOUGH what I need is JUST a full standard install onto my USB 20 gig external hard drive. Then I wanna boot from it...

Can I ask for an answer to the following:

What would I need to do to have the same abilities and everything that a full internal IDE drive install would have?

thank you!

lilsirecho

Veteran

Registered: 2003-10-24

Posts: 5,000

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

AFAICT you should be able to boot from USBHDD with any HDD (Flash or otherwise).

The ID for your drive must be setup in bootmanager, grub or lilo and the computer must boot from usbHDD.

Try an arrangement and see what happens, you can't destroy anything!!

Last edited by lilsirecho (2008-06-16 02:22:23)

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Prediction...This year will be a very odd year!
Hard work does not kill people but why risk it: Charlie Mccarthy
A man is not complete until he is married..then..he is finished.
When ALL is lost, what can be found? Even bytes get lonely for a little bit!     X-ray confirms Iam spineless!

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

Appreciate that.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience using the latest release and simply installing to the USB external hard drive...
Then trying to boot from that drive.... Would it act just like an install to an internal IDE drive.

I'll give it a try, yet it would be great to know if there's any tweaks I could expect to need.
I'm NOT installing to flash media like a USB key..... just a regular external USB encased regular drive. And of couse the PC is USB2...

happy Sunday!

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

Doing my USB install NOW !!!!
I'll write back later here:

klixon

Member

From: Nederland

Registered: 2007-01-17

Posts: 525

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

This is entirely possible if your bios can boot from it.
You will need to add the "usb" hook in mkinitcpio.conf if it's not there already

Good luck

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Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

Zepp

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-25

Posts: 334

Website

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

Ya, totally doable if your bios supports booting from usb devices. I think you can boot with a grub cd on older systems that don't, though I am not 100% certain about that one.

Last edited by Zepp (2008-06-16 06:20:25)

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

Great klixon Great Zepp Great  lilsirecho

Well, right now I've done the entire install though it only gets up to before the core begins to load and stops... I guess the:

>> add the "usb" hook in mkinitcpio.conf    is the next thing to try....

I will reboot and give more info in a bit...

at the moment I've done a regular install to another pc and so have to try the USB drive in a bit....

cool....!

y

Last edited by yvonney (2008-06-16 08:23:42)

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

Well, having a great time with the internal drive install though I'd REALLy like to get the USB2 External drive bootable.

Here's is basically what happens when I try to boot.... I get about a page's worth of weird errors etc. Could use some help on this one. I will get it working IF it's possible... I'm no stranger to problems....hehehe.... love 'em... can't wait to get this running of course.

BASICALLY before the core loads and after all the beginning boot up stuff this is what it looks like:

Running Hook [keymap]
Loading Keymap...done
Running Hook [filesystems]
Loading root filesystem module...

THEN THE PROBLEMS START:

Attempting to create root device...' dev/disk/by-uuid/(long string goes here)
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for ' dev/disk/by-uuid

MORE LIKE THIS .....THEN:

klibc contains no 'ls' binary  use echo * instead

etc etc
(haven't typed everything out)

So..... ANY IDEAS?

I read around here something about UUID being a newish thing for the latest release...

probably wrong on that though I am REALLY interested in ARCH and this week in how to get an install to an external USB drive to boot...

Really nice to get help....

in any event....thank you!!!!

y

Last edited by yvonney (2008-06-16 08:14:12)

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

SUCCESS !!!

>> add the "usb" hook in mkinitcpio.conf   during install just added the USB HOOK...!!

very very much appreciated everyone!

y

daf666

Member

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 470

Website

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

I want to do exactly the same thing, install Arch on a USB stick and then boot other machines with that stick.
But, with the addition of creating an .img file from that USB stick and 'dd' it to other sticks (I need to have the image available so I can create a bootable stick with my stuff on it when I need it).
I would assume that the method is

dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=usb_image.img

Is that correct?

lilsirecho

Veteran

Registered: 2003-10-24

Posts: 5,000

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

*  How to make a permanent, uncompressed install of FaunOS (Arch Linux Install with FaunOS configurations)
To HDD.....................

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Prediction...This year will be a very odd year!
Hard work does not kill people but why risk it: Charlie Mccarthy
A man is not complete until he is married..then..he is finished.
When ALL is lost, what can be found? Even bytes get lonely for a little bit!     X-ray confirms Iam spineless!

yvonney

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 671

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

I've had a big rethink on USB boot... what I've been doing is booting from a USB hard drive    20 gig.. regular install

although the knowledge is fantasic on the few (um, dozen?:-)) things that are needed for a USB boot and run system... aufs   squashfs etc.... Great stufff though I'm learning so much right now.... so, I'll be waiting for the best time to get down to doing it....

FaunOS and larch are so cool....

Larch is part of faun I believe..

I guess learning the larch way would be where I'd start...

best wishes......nice help!!!!

wow is arch changing my world....!!!!
I am SO into Linux now...

Last edited by yvonney (2008-08-06 05:42:15)

daf666

Member

Registered: 2007-04-08

Posts: 470

Website

Re: FULL ARCH regular install to USB hard DRIVE ok? NOT a live or flash

FaunOS and larch are so cool....

Indeed... since my last post I discovered Larch and it works very nice for my needs.