Unable to install grub to usb hdd

freed_hum · 2012-11-05 02:57:50

Hello everybody. For 3 whole days I have been searching and trying to make this work but I am unable so, as my last resort, maybe someon here can give me a hand. I am trying to install arch to and old 30G ipod classic in order to use it as a portable USB bootable hard drive. I have followed all the instructions for a default installationa dn read the "Install Arch to USB" wiki. I have installed grub to the hdd with:

grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --debug /dev/sdc

Where sdc is my ipod drive. Everything seems fine during the installation. ***I have also tried many alternatives of the above command (using --allow-floppy, --no-floppy, --root-directory) without success. All the installation is fine but I am unable to boot it. When I boot up, I select USB in my bios settings, to boot the usb and after a few seconds, I get a black screen with
GRUB _
and a blinking cursor.
I have also tried installing syslinux but it's the same result (except I do not get the "GRUB" message, just a black screen and a blinking cursor". I any one has done this before or has any idea on how to make this work it would be immensely appreciated.

Thank you

Chuck Arch Linux · 2012-11-06 03:05:20

What are your partition and type off?
Did you generate the grub config after grub install to set your drive path.?

DSpider · 2012-11-06 09:53:57

iPod? Huh?? Then you should probably specify this in the title.

Maybe the BIOS isn't set to boot from your equivalent of "Removable Dev." first, "CD-ROM" second and "Internal Storage" third, after which you need to adjust the boot priority order.

Blank screen with blinking cursor means that you either installed to a partition instead of the whole drive (i.e. to "/dev/sdc1" instead of the MBR), or you didn't generate a grub.cfg.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB

And don't forget to add the "usb" hook:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … nvironment

Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr is on a separate partition.
Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:
# mkinitcpio -p linux

Another thing you should worry about, is that the drive is probably not that fast. It was designed for music and such (e.g. power saving by placing the files in cache, etc). It could drain the battery in mere minutes.

freed_hum · 2012-11-06 13:07:43

Chuck Arch Linux wrote:

What are your partition and type off?
Did you generate the grub config after grub install to set your drive path.?

I have an ext2 /dev/sdc1 primary partition of 512MB and a secondary partition of 29GB, ext4. I encrypted the second partition with luks and then created an lvm over the luks partiton, with two volumes, home and root.
Yes I generasted the grub.cfg file automatically and installed grub on /dev/sdc not /dev/sdc1

freed_hum · 2012-11-06 13:13:14

DSpider wrote:

iPod? Huh?? Then you should probably specify this in the title.

Maybe the BIOS isn't set to boot from your equivalent of "Removable Dev." first, "CD-ROM" second and "Internal Storage" third, after which you need to adjust the boot priority order.
Blank screen with blinking cursor means that you either installed to a partition instead of the whole drive (i.e. to "/dev/sdc1" instead of the MBR), or you didn't generate a grub.cfg.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Guide#GRUB

And don't forget to add the "usb" hook:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … nvironment
Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr is on a separate partition.
Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:
# mkinitcpio -p linux
Another thing you should worry about, is that the drive is probably not that fast. It was designed for music and such (e.g. power saving by placing the files in cache, etc). It could drain the battery in mere minutes.

I have already done all the things you mentioned. My bios boots the usb device as asked, I am sure of that. Grub was installed on the MBR not the partition. I have a grub.cfg file (generated automatically). I also already added usb to me hooks along with encrypt and lvm2 for my encrypted partition and regenerated the kernel image with mkinitcpio.
I have good experience installing arch. I already installed my laptop arch with the same setup, a boot partition and a second partition, luks encrypted with two logical volumes, root and home and everything works perfectly.
I have quickly read somewhere (can't remember where), that some bioses, when specified to boot from usb, do not look at the usb device's mbr. Is that true?

PS: thanks for answering guys, it would really help me to resolve this problem. If i do, I want to install linux on other usb hard drives, not only the ipod.

Also, multumesc domnul "DSpider" pentru raspuns.

Last edited by freed_hum (2012-11-06 15:59:44)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-11-05 02:57:50

Unable to install grub to usb hdd

#2 2012-11-06 03:05:20

Re: Unable to install grub to usb hdd

#3 2012-11-06 09:53:57

Re: Unable to install grub to usb hdd

#4 2012-11-06 13:07:43

Re: Unable to install grub to usb hdd

#5 2012-11-06 13:13:14

Re: Unable to install grub to usb hdd

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