/boot on usb stick [Solved]

[gezza]

Hi to all,
Could someone please explain how to get a system to boot on a usb stick?
I just need a very small drive to boot into a raid 1,5/6 system.
I have done an install with the usb stick mounted as /boot. but it does not work.
It appears to require something else!
It does read the usb device but does not fined enough to boot.
Many thanks for your thoughts on this matter.
Gezza

[Dragynn]

Hi gezza,

Probably gonna need a little more info, but here's how I did my USB install: First off, download the PCLinuxOS-liveUSB package from the repo. Wipe and format a USB stick, g-parted works great, I use ext3.  Now fire up the liveUSB utility and follow the instructions, note that to start the program does NOT want you to plug the USB stick in until it's ready for it. It will ask you for an iso to install, you can use a CD-iso or just a PCLOS iso file on your computer. After that, the utility will do all the work and install a bootable version. To boot, you must have a computer that can boot from a USB-HDD, set this in BIOS, I had to go into the hard-drive boot order in BIOS and set it to boot from USB-HDD first and conventional HDD second, just the boot menu alone wouldn't do it.

Hope this helps, good luck!

[gezza]

Yes, Dragynn
More info.....
What I am trying to do is boot a raid 1,5,6 system.
However that leaves no space for a boot drive. So...I thought I would install the the 2,3,4 drives as appropriate and then install the /boot on a usb stick.
In this instance a 1,2,4,8GB stick. Now since this is for raid drives if the stick is not plugged in the system will  not boot.
But it does give me space in the system for the 2,3,4 drives but no boot device and no CDrom. This would be a usb/esata device.
So the usb 1,2,4,8GB device would act as the boot device. At least I was hoping that would happen.
I do not want to install anything but /boot on the stick, no system as such.
Hope this clears up any misunderstanding.
Gezza

[genomega]

Do you have an os installed now?

[Was_Just19]

Yes, Dragynn
More info.....
What I am trying to do is boot a raid 1,5,6 system.
However that leaves no space for a boot drive. So...I thought I would install the the 2,3,4 drives as appropriate and then install the /boot on a usb stick.
In this instance a 1,2,4,8GB stick. Now since this is for raid drives if the stick is not plugged in the system will  not boot.
But it does give me space in the system for the 2,3,4 drives but no boot device and no CDrom. This would be a usb/esata device.
So the usb 1,2,4,8GB device would act as the boot device. At least I was hoping that would happen.
I do not want to install anything but /boot on the stick, no system as such.
Hope this clears up any misunderstanding.
Gezza

I do not do RAID so am probably misunderstanding you ......  but it reads as if you just want to have the boot manager on the USB stick, and then using that call the vmlinuz or whatever to get the OS booting.

In that case the boot manager files go into /boot/grub and you install Grub to the MBR of the USB drive from there, and the needed files to boot the OS go under /boot

Am I getting the idea?

[gezza]

Hi  Gusy,
Yes to all,
I will say again what I am trying to do.
My system has space on the front of the machine for 4 drives.
I wanted to put the raid 6 array into the icute caddiies. (If you do not know these they are like sata cadies but easier to use, and they are used on raid boxes that you can buy)
If I have the 4 devices in front then there is no room for a boot drive or CD/DVD rom.
The CD/DVD ron I can use an esata/usb drive but for the boot disk i want/need the usb stick with grub ans /boot on it.
I  understand /boot can be on a raid 1 disk but I am running raid 5/6.
The idea is thay I can have a raid system boouting fron a usb stick.
Hopes this helps.
By the by, I tried Fedora 14 and it worked a treet from the usb stick, but pclos does not!!
Gezza

[Was_Just19]

By the by, I tried Fedora 14 and it worked a treet from the usb stick, but pclos does not!!
Gezza

What does not work?
PCLOS does boot from USB stick, so what is it that did not work for you?

[kjpetrie]

You probably need two USB sticks - one set up as a liveusb, and another to install /boot to. I have never doen this, so I'm guessing, but I would boot from the livecd, start the installer, choose custom disc partitioning and select the second USB to mount as /boot. At the end of the install I would install GRUB to the second USB stick.

Does that not work?

[gezza]

Hi Guy's,
I think that the usb stick I had was bad!!!
I put a new 4Gb stick in and now all works well
Many thanks for your thoughts on this subject.
Gezza