JackLab/Installation on USB Drive

From openSUSE

This page shows the manual steps needed to install JAD beta2 on a USB hard drive or stick.

You can use the liveDVD-JAD-beta2 dvd. See [1].

Or you can use the JAD beta2 installation DVD together with the JAD-beta2-USB-Boot cd.

Limitations

• Only single partition installation is supported.

You can not create a separate partition for /home or other subtrees.

• /etc/fstab is rewritten after every boot.

This is because the boot script in initrd (customised kiwi script) sets up /etc/fstab.

• Only ext2/ext3 filesystems are supported

Actually I don't know if findfs (a ext2 tool) supports other filesystems.

• Only rt-kernel 2.6.19-5-rt is supported

Installation

To make booting the USB drive possible, you have to assign the label JAD_USB to the installation partition.

In the examples the USB disk is named /dev/sdx (could be /dev/sdc or /dev/sdf or ..)

In the examples the partition on the USB disk is named /dev/sdxy (could be /dev/sdc3 or /dev/sdf5 or ..)

Install JAD

Four extra steps have to be done.

• Start a xterm window

As soon as the installation system waits for your input press ctrl-alt-shift-x to start a xterm window. The window will go to the background when you continue the installation, but you can bring it back when you need it.

• Change the partitioning

In installation overview screen switch to the expoert tab.

Discard the yast proposal and do a expert partition setup.

Select/create your USB partition /dev/sdxy. Set the moount point to /:

Remember the partition name /dev/sdxy.

• Install grub to USB partition /dev/sdxy not to the mbr.

In the booloder screen select the installation options.

Disable mbr installation.

Select /dev/sdxy as installation target for grub.

Do the installation.

• Label the partition with JAD_USB

While the rpm/image installation is going on switch to the xterm window you started before.

Enter alt-tab-tab (keep pressing alt) or maybe alt-tab-tab-tab to get back the xterm window.

Enter

e2label /dev/sdxy JAD_USB

in the xterm window.

Test if findfs detects the label:

findfs LABEL=JAD_USB

The outpu should be "/dev/sdxy"

Boot JAD_USB_BOOT to complete intallation

Boot from the LiveDVD using the JAD-USB-Boot option or boot from the JAD-beta2-USB-Boot cd

If you installed from the LiveDVD you have to boot two times.

Manually install bootloader on USB disk.

You should now have booted your installed system on the USB disk.

• Install the USB initrd

The LiveDVD/JAD-beta2-USB-Boot-cd should be mounted on /media/SU.001

cd /boot
cp initrd-2.6.19-5-rt initrd-2.6.19-5-rt.org
cp /media/SU.001/boot/i386/loader/initrdus initrd-2.6.19-5-rt

• Edit menu.lst in /boot/grub

Remove all boot entries but the first

Change the partition pointer (hdv,w) in gfxmenu and root.

The pointer should be (hd0,x-1), x-1 is one less than your linux partition number and it's probably already set to the right value. In the exaple the JAD_USB partition is /dev/sde3, so the partition pointer is (hd0,2). hd0 is used because the bios will install the USB as hd0 when you boot from it.

Remove the root=/dev/sdxy and resume=/dev/sdxy options from the kernel line.

The file should look like this, exept for (hd0,w) and vga=0xabc:

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message
title JAD 1.0 beta2 USB
   root (hd0,2)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.19-5-rt vga=0x346 splash=silent showopts
   initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.19-5-rt

• Install grub to mbr

Use findfs to get your disk device

findfs LABEL=JAD_USB

Note: /dev/sdxy is probably different as during the installation.

Use the output /dev/sdxy to get your device /dev/sdx

Create a file named instgrub with following content:

device (hd0) /dev/sdx
root (hd0,w)
setup (hd0)
quit

Replace /dev/sdx with your actual USB device

Replace (hd0,w) with your actual partition pointer (same as in menu.lst)

Install grub with

grub --batch < instgrub

Reboot from your USB disk.

Bugs

When booting the USB disk, device manager is started. Run

dmsetup remove_all

to get back your normal disk device files (dev/sdxy).