Ubuntu

Unable to boot from external usb drive

Asked by Holden_Caulfield04

I've installed Ubuntu 7.10 to my Dell Inspiron 9300 Laptop via 6.4 GB external usb hard disk. The live installation seems to go off without a hitch. Upon rebooting, however, the system lags with a blank screen and doesn't go any further.

I tried following the Ubuntu portable guide but it didn't appear to work in my scenario: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=464113. GRUB encountered a fatal error and terminated the installation.

Here is my partition table:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3d1d3d1c

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6541 52540551 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6542 7817 10249470 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 6449 MB, 6449135616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 784 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0009c393

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 744 5976148+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 745 784 321300 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 745 784 321268+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 2002 MB, 2002255872 bytes
58 heads, 57 sectors/track, 1182 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 3306 * 512 = 1692672 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

        Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 1 1183 1955263+ 6 FAT16

What is the best way to boot Ubuntu Linux on my laptop from my usb hard disk?

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Morten Kjeldgaard (mok0) said : 		#1

I have no access (or experience with) to a laptop running Ubuntu, but I have a couple of suggestion for further analysis of this behavior:

1) Your laptop may not be configured to boot from a USB drive. You should go into the BIOS settings to make sure that the machine searches the USB bus for a boot device.

2) If point 1 is already fulfilled, the device name of your USB external disk may depend on which physical slot it is attached to, and whether or not you have other USB devices (mouse, ...) connected. Since you have it hardwired in grub.conf to /dev/sdb1, you may want to investigate this.

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Holden_Caulfield04 (tylern) said : 		#2

1) The laptop BIOS is configured to boot from USB. This drive is listed ahead of CD-ROM in the order of bootable devices.

2) There are no other USB devices attached, including USB mouses, joysticks etc. I am using the laptop's touchpad.

Are you saying I may have a different result if I plug the drive into a different USB slot? I am using powered-usb slots with an external drive that has its own power.

I should also note that the blank screen has a blinking underscore - if that helps anything.

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Morten Kjeldgaard (mok0) said : 		#3

Yes, I think you may get a different device name for the disk (i.e. /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, ...) depending on which USB slot you plug the device into.

At what point in the booting process do you get the blank screen? Please describe what goes on.

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Morten Kjeldgaard (mok0) said : 		#4

Check out this link: http://ubuntukids.org/blog/?p=69

Can you help with this problem?

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