Re: USB stick boot error

[Chris Lale <chrislale@untrammelled.co.uk>]

Thanks, Juergen.

Juergen Fiedler wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Chris Lale <chrislale@untrammelled.co.uk> wrote:
>> Thanks, Yohann.
>>
>> Yohann Lepage wrote:
>> [...]
>>> But i use an other way to install debian live on usb stick (because i
>>> use 2 partitions)
>>> -create binary.iso
>>> -copy the content of iso in the usb stick
>>> -install boot manager on usb stick
>>> You can view an example here :
>>> http://github.com/2xyo/satan/tree/master/install_satan.sh
>>>
>> [...]
>> 
> 
> For this approach to work (easily), you'll have to create an ISO image
> ('-b iso' instead of '-b usb-hdd').
> The image that is produced by '-b usb-hdd' is actually the image of a
> whole drive, not just a partition, so it can't be mounted directly.
> I believe you can get to the partition with some advanced losetup
> magic, but from my own experience, the ISO approach seems much more
> convenient.
> 

I'm now wondering if there is a problem with the usb stick's mbr. The usb stick
will boot with syslinux but not with grub.

I was able to loop mount the live binary.iso and copy it to the USB. I installed
grub and rebooted, but the usb stick was not recognised at all by the BIOS - it
booted straight from my hard drive.

I reinstalled Puppy Linux on the usb stick. It uses a FAT16 partition and
syslinux which boots OK. I then deleted all the files on the usb stick and
installed only grub (with /dev/sda1 mounted on /media/disk):

	# mkdir -p /media/disk/boot/grub
	# echo "(hd0) /dev/sda" > /media/disk/boot/grub/device.map
	# grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk/ --no-floppy '(hd0)'
	
When I rebooted the BIOS totally ignored the usb stick and booted from the hard
drive. I replaced the mbr with
	# install-mbr /dev/sda
	# grub-install --root-directory=/media/disk/ '(hd0)'

Now booting halts with the message "Boot error" again.

Does grub-install completely replace the mbr or only modify it? Are there some
other mbrs I could try?

Regards,
-- 
Chris.