Bill Davidsen wrote:
If I do an FC9 install on a USB drive, including writing the grub to
the MBR on the USB drive, is there any reason why I can't pull the
plug and leave the system untouched?


I have that exact setup right now. I have a laptop which will boot, in
order, from the following devices:


DVD Drive
USB Hard Drive
Internal Hard Drive

I've had F8 on the internal for a while, and wanted to test F9 without
having to risk blowing up some custom settings on F8. Other than being
a bit slow at times because of the USB, it's worked fine. One thing you
might want to note is that it will find and use the swap on the internal
drive when booting off the USB.


Mike

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Bill Davidsen wrote:
If I do an FC9 install on a USB drive, including writing the grub to the
MBR on the USB drive, is there any reason why I can't pull the plug and
leave the system untouched?


Alternatively, since I have grub in the sda MBR, is there any reason not
to just put an additional stanza (not default) in grub.conf to boot FC9
off USB, and just select that as a boot option when the USB is plugged in?


I have done this with earlier versions of Fedora. You may have to
install in the expert mode before the installer will see the USB
drive. If you install Grub to the USB drive, you have to tell Grub
that the USB drive will be hd0 when you boot if you plan on using
BIOS settings to boot directly to the USB drive.


You can also add a chainload from the Grub config in sda to load the
Grub install on the USB drive. You will have to remap the drive as
part of the stanza so that the USB drive becomes BIOS drive 0.


title USB boot
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainload (hd0)

Mikkel
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

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Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:

Bill Davidsen wrote:
If I do an FC9 install on a USB drive, including writing the grub to
the MBR on the USB drive, is there any reason why I can't pull the
plug and leave the system untouched?


Alternatively, since I have grub in the sda MBR, is there any reason
not to just put an additional stanza (not default) in grub.conf to
boot FC9 off USB, and just select that as a boot option when the USB
is plugged in?


I have done this with earlier versions of Fedora. You may have to
install in the expert mode before the installer will see the USB drive.
If you install Grub to the USB drive, you have to tell Grub that the USB
drive will be hd0 when you boot if you plan on using BIOS settings to
boot directly to the USB drive.


You can also add a chainload from the Grub config in sda to load the
Grub install on the USB drive. You will have to remap the drive as part
of the stanza so that the USB drive becomes BIOS drive 0.


title USB boot
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainload (hd0)

Thank you for the words of wisdom Mikkel and Mike. I have to think about
this a bit, because I have installed (on a server) FC8 (32 bit) on one
drive and 64 bit on another, using the 32 bit sda MBR and boot partition
and just pointing to the sdb boot from the boot partition on sda. But I
will be careful not to botch the existing install, and if it doesn't
work as expected I'll play with the remap. My plan is to get the FC9
boot by just manually selecting an alternate stanza of the grub.conf,
but if that doesn't work I know what to try next.


--
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
"We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked." - from Slashdot

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Bill Davidsen wrote:

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:


You can also add a chainload from the Grub config in sda to load the
Grub install on the USB drive. You will have to remap the drive as
part of the stanza so that the USB drive becomes BIOS drive 0.


title USB boot
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainload (hd0)

Thank you for the words of wisdom Mikkel and Mike. I have to think about
this a bit, because I have installed (on a server) FC8 (32 bit) on one
drive and 64 bit on another, using the 32 bit sda MBR and boot partition
and just pointing to the sdb boot from the boot partition on sda. But I
will be careful not to botch the existing install, and if it doesn't
work as expected I'll play with the remap. My plan is to get the FC9
boot by just manually selecting an alternate stanza of the grub.conf,
but if that doesn't work I know what to try next.


On your setup, you will have to change things slightly - my stanza
was for a system having only one drive. For you, you would need:


title USB boot
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
chainload (hd0)

You also have the option of telling the BIOS to boot from the USB
drive...


Mikkel
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

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