Re: unique install question? (Squeeze audio install using the Wheezy-di from a USB drive)
On 14/06/12 04:04, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:27:22 +1000, Scott wrote in message
> <[🔎] 4FD7DE6A.6020104@gmail.com>:
>
>> On 13/06/12 04:45, Brian wrote:
>>> On Tue 12 Jun 2012 at 16:52:43 +0200, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:01:22 +0100, Brian wrote in message
>>>> <[🔎] 20120612100122.GJ30016@desktop>:
>>>>
>>>>> The DVD is a USB device. She cannot boot from USB on the machine
>>>>> she wishes to install Debian to.
>>
<snipped>
>>
>> I've tried that a number of times with old machines whose BIOS didn't
>> support USB booting, only on a couple of occasions did GRUB manage to
>> use the root=/dev/sdb line.
>> :-(
>
> ..the key is use the cdrom grub boot as a stepping stone to
> find the usb dvd's boot record, and boot that. E.g. Knoppix
> have a few 16?MB "boot only" isos to boot their 4GB dvd isos.
Yes - I think (guess) it's the same as the one from DamnSmallLinux, (and
uses the same mechanism as SBM), - a floppy chainloader for CD boot. It
gets around the BIOS not being able to see the device attached to the USB.
AFAIK GRUB can't get around that limitation (boot a device unseen by the
BIOS) - though I don't doubt GRUB has the capacity to do so if
SmartBootManager type hooks were written into a GRUB module (the
spaceinvaders module for GRUB is a good example of how simple that might
be).
>
>
> ..in my (grub legacy) experience, I did this 3 ways, chainload
> the next boot loader, or, use memdisk as kernel and the iso
> image as initrd,
Which should (I suspect) allow you to boot from devices not 'seen' by
the BIOS (e.g. attached to cards, removable)
> and finally "the grub way", "root ([tab][tab]".
> I borrowed memdisk from syslinux. ;o)
>
> ..but yes, grub and the kernel will often disagree on "what's where."
Your third way (I suspect) allows you to boot a device that is seen by
the BIOS, but is seen by the BIOS as unbootable. Eg. BIOS sees USB, but
doesn't allow for booting from a USB device (possibly the scenario in
question).
<snipped>
>
> ..the first time I pulled such a stunt, (5 1996 vintage IBM 760ED
> thinkpads that came with 3 cdrom and 2 bootable floppy drives to
> fit the auxillary disk|battery compartment,) I put Smart Boot Manager
> (http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html) on the harddisk mbrs, then
> removed the floppy drives and put in the cd drives and booted the
> distro installer cds from the harddisks.
I suspect SBM uses the same mechanism as the Knoppix/DSL boot CD from
floppy method.
> First X boot was an early knoppix clone that took 2.5 hours
> off that poor 4x cd drive. ;o)
>
...but almost certainly it got you some sort of graphical display - a
major Linux achievement at the time (kudos to kudzu and Klaus's config
scripting).
Not much earlier than that it was just floppy installs as CDs wouldn't
boot off card controllers - so DOS and laplink was considered corner
cutting (I'd forgotten how unreliable floppy disks were).
Kind regards
--
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