Fujitsu Siemens AMILO Notebook Li 3710
Memory: 3.8 GiB
Processor: Intel® Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz × 2
Graphics: Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2
OS Type: 32-bit
Disk: 237.7 GB
I have an old 200GB LaCie external hard drive, There’s nothing wrong with other than it collects dust. It seemed a good idea to use it as part of a dual boot system with my Fujitsu Siemens AMILO li 3710 laptop that has Linux Mint Debian Edition with the Cinnamon desktop installed on it. I had decided that openSUSE 12.3 KDE was the ideal candidate. I used GParted to make partition table: 512Mib /boot, 8GB swap, 20GB /(root) and the rest as /home. That was easy enough. I then booted up open SUSE using a Live USB thumb drive and proceeded with installation. All was smooth until I got to mounting the partitions I made earlier. I had to first unmount the partitions for LMDE first before I could apply mount points for openSUSE. I thought that this was a little odd, a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario but what the heck, I’ll go with the flow. I got the partitions mounted and formated to Ext4 and hit install. It was that Rubicon moment. The LaCie kicked in and the installation went as expected. When asked where to load the Grub boot loader, I loaded it to the boot sector of the LaCie instead of the MBR. When I rebooted the system, the laptop went straight to boot loader recovery. I’d expected something like this to happen, I thought I’d recover it using a live CD/DVD. Unfortunately this didn’t work because the /(root) partition was not mounted. The chicken and egg scenario. I then thought I’d reinstall LMDE over the existing data without the LaCie attached to restore the mount points, That sort of worked but unfortunately I didn’t understand the long chain of letters and numbers that were attached to each of the partitions. My very limited knowledge of the command line now failed me. Anyway I threw my toys out of the pram and decided the best course of action was to nuke the hard drive, reinstall and then restore the backup I had made the previous evening. It may not have been the most elegant solution to that part of the problem but it worked a charm and saved a huge amount of time struggling with a more conventional solution. I got all my data back for LMDE and the boot loader was working. The problem I’m left with is, I have a LaCie that according to GParted, has an installation on it I can’t access. I can also see the partitions and their content in the Mint menu. If I try to boot up the system with the LaCie attached, openSUSE appears in the Grub bootloader screen. If I try to boot into openSUSE, I get a message that I must load the kernel first. Reboot without the the LaCie and the laptop starts and boots normally. Can any of you good people help me get the laptop and the LaCie working together. If I give up now, I’d just feel I’ve used up a lot of time and effort and learnt next to nothing in the process. Please bear in mind I’m very new to this, so please keep explanations and directions as simple as possible Thanks
So, to install openSUSE and boot from an External Hard drive, you must be able to do the following:
Be able to select the External Hard drive as your boot drive in your PC BIOS or UEFI setup.
During the Installation, one must do custom Partitioning to ensure ALL of openSUSE goes to, installs on, the External hard drive. (Root /, SWAP & /home)
You must make sure to install generic boot code into the MBR or Grub 2 there as the MBR of a typical external hard drive will be blank by default.
By Default, openSUSE try’s to connect into the normal boot drive and only by manual redirection can you be successful with an external hard drive.
openSUSE absolutly boots and runs OK from an External Hard drive when the install goes correctly.
Good Morning. I’ve given the the suggested blog a good read and it has left me totally confused.
I’ve tried to proceeded with the installation process to my external drive.
After the Clock and Time Zone.
Suggested Partitioning
a) Propose a separate home partition (checked)
b) Create Partition Setup (checked)
Preparing Hard Disk
Radio button 3 checked: 2;.SCS1 Disk, 189.92GB, /dev/sde, Maxor-6B200PD, (The LaCie)
Click next:
Use Entire Hard Disk
502,03MiB Linux Native (/dev/scd1, lable Boot)
8.01GB Linux Swap (/dev/sdc2 lable, Swap)
20.01GB Linux Native (/dev/sdc5, lable Root)
161.43GB Linux Native (/dev/sdc6, lable Home)
Click next:
Create User:…Blah, blah.
Click next:
Live Installation Settings
Booting
.Boot loader Type GRUB2
.Status Location: /dev/sda (MBR)
.Change locaation:
[INDENT=2].Boot from MBR is enabled (disable)
.Boot from “/” Partition is disabled (enable)[/INDENT]
Order of Hard Disks …Blah blah.
Nowhere is it mentioned about about a new entry, “Enable Secure Boot: False”. as mentioned in the blog. This is where I came to a grinding halt with the installation. Any further suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.:?
Yes, openSUSE will not on purpose install on an external hard drive. With custom partitioning, you can do it, pointing all three required partitions (root /, swap & /home) to the external hard drive and making sure that grub2 is targeted to the same external hard drive. Once complete, you must go into your PC BIOS and select the external hard drive as the boot drive and you must install grub or generic boot code into the external hard drive as by default, the MBR on the external hard drive would be blank. You need to read my words slowly as they all have meaning in this situation.
Good afternoon James, sorry I haven’t got back to you with my progress sooner. Problems with plumbers, doctors, birthdays; I’m sure you know how it is. Anyway, after much reading and scratching of my head, I’ve managed to get a working openSUSE 12.3 installed onto my LaCie. Very nice it is too. My problem is probably trivial for you but it is a real headache for me. Firstly, when I boot up my Fujitsu Siemens laptop, I only intermittently arrive at the very pretty openSUSE boot screen. This contains my installations of openSUSE and Linux Mint Debian Edition and their respective safe modes etc - great. That is working perfectly, (when I get to the screen). If I boot up the laptop without the LaCie attached. I go straight to:
error: no such device, (a bunch of alpha numerics)
I want to reset my Grub2 boot loader to load Mint independently of openSUSE’s boot loader. When I installed Mint, the Grub boot loader was installed to the MBR of the laptop, as per norm. Now my knowledge fails me. What must I do to restore the boot loader? Am I going to be able to boot up both OSs normally? Is the solution going to be permanent or, will I have to go through the boot loader rescue process every time I boot up without the LaCie attached? Why is the connection to openSUSE’s boot loader screen intermittent?
Obviously, it would be very inconvenient if I have to carry around the laCie to work with both OSs in this configuration.
Your expertise is desperately needed :). Many thanks for the advise you have already given. I’ve learned a lot in a short time and what’s more, I’m enjoying every bit of the process.
…a thought just occurred to me. As Linux Mint Debian Edition is already bootable from openSUSE’s boot loader screen. Would moving openSUSE’s boot loader to the laptop resolve the issue? My reasoning being if, it is on the laptop, it will see the LaCie when it is attached and when it is not it will only see Mint. If this is correct, could you please advise?
Thanks for the suggestions. This I have done right the way down to the boot order in the BIOS. It just does not want to play ball. So I’ve thrown in the towel and nuked the laptop’s hard drive and done a reinstall. No problem because I’m a big believer in regular backups so it took next to no time. I’ll try it again when I have more time on my hands. Thanks anyway.
It says where the root folder is located. It says if it is booting from the MBR or the root / folder and very IMPORTANT is the booting order. If /dev/sda is first, that is from where you boot. The External hard drive will be /dev/sdb or higher. The booting section can be used to configure all of this information.
