Hi all,
I am trying to create a multi-boot usb stick that I can plug on any
computer and have a combination of utilities and live-opensuse linux
available.
Here is what I have done so far. I have a 4GB usb stick, that I
partitioned as follows:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 2048 1432015 714984 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 1433600 3071143 818772 83 Linux
/dev/sdc3 3072000 3958783 443392 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdc4 3958784 7821311 1931264 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 3960832 4235263 137216 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
What I want to do is have openSUSE 12.1 KDE Live 32 bit in /dev/sdc1, 64
bit in /dev/sdc2, Ultimate Boot CD in /dev/sdc3, and GParted in
/dev/sdc5. Then later someday I may want to add some images to later
partitions. The reason I want to do that is because it seems like a
waste to use a whole usb stick for one small bootable OS like gparted,
and the smallest size sticks I can buy here now are 4GB.
I burned an openSUSE 12.1 KDE Live 32 bit cd and copied all the files
from the bootable CD into /dev/sdc1. Then I did the same with 64 bit
image files into /dev/sdc2. I set up my bios so that it would recognize
the usb stick.
I copied the files from /boot/grub of my OS into the /boot/grub
directory of /dev/sdc1. I did that so that I would have stage 1, stage
2, and stage 1.5 image files on the partition. I then edited menu.lst so
that it would point to the first partition of the first hard drive and
the appropriate files. When the pc boots up and I select “boot from
usb”, grub sees the usb stick as hd0, not hd2, as it is when I am in my OS.
I went into the grub menu on boot up and typed find /boot/grub/stage1.
It gave me (hd2,0) in addition to my others. This was because I have 2
other hard drives there in the boot order.
So I typed root (hd2,0), and then setup (hd2).
It said it successfully copied the grub images into the MBR of the
stick. I don’t remember the exact syntax of what it said, but it was the
same thing it always says when it copies that.
So, I then rebooted and selected “boot from usb” at the boot prompt
(making the usb stick hd0), and tried to boot up. It got into grub ok,
but it will only give me a command line. It doesn’t seem to read my
menu.lst file at all. I have only set up menu.lst to try and boot into
this first partition, as I figure I want to be successful with that
first. Afterwards I will set up the other options.
So here is my menu.lst file:
default openSUSE_Live_KDE_32
implicit 1
display isolinux.msg
ui gfxboot bootlogo isolinux.msg
prompt 1
timeout 8
###Live 32###
label openSUSE_Live_KDE_32
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/i385/loader/linux
initrd /boot/i386/loader/initrd ramdisk_size=512000
ramdisk_blocksize=4096 splash=silent quiet preloadlog=/dev/null showopts
label linux
kernel /boot/i386/loader/linux
initrd /boot/i386/loader/initrd ramdisk_size=512000
ramdisk_blocksize=4096 splash=silent quiet preloadlog=/dev/null
liveinstall showopts
To note, the kernel file from a live kde cd is in /boot/i385/loader. The
only difference from the file structure on the cd and the file structure
on the usb is that I wanted to change grub to boot from menu.lst instead
of syslinux.cfg, which is in the root of the cd. In order to do that I
had to copy the other grub stage files.
So, any ideas why it won’t bring up the grub menu and all that? I am
sure I am missing something. I will be glad to give more information also.
g.o.