Doing a Full install to a USB Thumb Drive?

robertdaleweir · #1 19th February 2012, 03:47 AM

Hi
Can one install a Full F16 onto a USB thumb drive, in a similar way to installing on a SSD drive? I actually installed F16 onto a 8 Gig USB stick but it will not reboot. I used set partitions on both and did not use LVM. I looked at the USB stick and it has a similar Partition Structure to one of my SSD drives. However the USB stick will not boot and the SSD (which is mounted also through an external USB connection) does boot.
I have used the exact same partition structure except the SSD is 32 Gig and the USB stick is only 8 Gigs. I feel that it should boot but it does not. Any help would be appreciated...

Fenrin · #2 19th February 2012, 11:08 AM

hello,

I installed F17 alpha RC2 XFCE on a 4 GB thumb drive and it boots fine. It's also without LVM, and partition filesystems are ext4.

did you check your BIOS settings?

And if it really didn't write the MBR on the thumb drive, you can probably still boot it with the bootloader of your hard disk.

robertdaleweir · #3 19th February 2012, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenrin

hello,

I installed F17 alpha RC2 XFCE on a 4 GB thumb drive and it boots fine. It's also without LVM, and partition filesystems are ext4.

did you check your BIOS settings?

And if it really didn't write the MBR on the thumb drive, you can probably still boot it with the bootloader of your hard disk.

Hi Fenrin
Thank you for your reply. When I looked at the USB stick under the newest Gparted (0.11.0-7) it gave me the result shown in the attached pics. The 8 gig pics are my USB stick. The 32 gig pics show a 32 gig SSD which does boot, from an External USB connected SATA Thermatake cradle. I use ext4 for the boot partition and btrfs for the slash (/) main partition.
As you can see the first partition has an issue on all the pics; but one boots the other doesn't. That is my dilemma!

Chilly Willy · #4 19th February 2012, 08:17 PM

The way *I* take it is that the thumb drive has to have software ran on it to make it bootable first, (like, "Fedora liveusb creator") then the OS can be loaded. How did you do yours? As for the SSD, it is supposed to already have this.

sea · #5 19th February 2012, 08:26 PM

During the installation from one usb drive (installation source) to another usb drive (installation target), one has to be sure to have the harddrive disabled (uncheck) during partitioning mode.

robertdaleweir · #6 19th February 2012, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

The way *I* take it is that the thumb drive has to have software ran on it to make it bootable first, (like, "Fedora liveusb creator") then the OS can be loaded. How did you do yours? As for the SSD, it is supposed to already have this.

Hi
I simply took the F16 DVD and went through the anaconda install. I picked my own partition setup and refused the LVM thing. It appeared that all had gone well but at the end when I tried to reboot, it would not. Hence I never got it setup if you will.
I did exactly the same for the SSD and as you say it would have had whatever it had as I purchased it. I do suspect that the USB stick had a fat32 Filesystem on it as they seem to always have. (or msdos).
The GPT will want to write its own MBR which is as I understand it is essentially a pointer to somewhere else.
Cheers...

---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 PM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by sea

During the installation from one usb drive (installation source) to another usb drive (installation target), one has to be sure to have the harddrive disabled (uncheck) during partitioning mode.

Hi
I installed from a DVD iso with F16 DVD image that I downloaded from Fedora. The only other drive is the computers internal one and I disregarded that one. I specifically chose the USB drive which anaconda proceeded to write my partition layout to.
I can actually mount the btrfs partition and it appears similar to the SSD one, the OS is there. The issue is, I believe, the 1st partition on the stick.

kurtdriver · #7 19th February 2012, 09:15 PM

Anaconda would have overwritten any other filesystems on that partition. Is it set to be bootable? Fdisk's a option toggles bootability.

Chilly Willy · #8 19th February 2012, 09:28 PM

The point I was trying to make is, no matter HOW you go about it, a drive HAS to be made bootable or it won't boot. (some drives already are but thumb drive usually are NOT)

kurtdriver · #9 19th February 2012, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

The point I was trying to make is, no matter HOW you go about it, a drive HAS to be made bootable or it won't boot. (some drives already are but thumb drive usually are NOT)

This has been my experience installing to USB keys from live-cds or install discs. I've always, if I recall correctly, had to run fdisk and toggle bootabilty afterwards.

robertdaleweir · #10 19th February 2012, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

The point I was trying to make is, no matter HOW you go about it, a drive HAS to be made bootable or it won't boot. (some drives already are but thumb drive usually are NOT)

Hi
I am sorry. Of course you are correct. Because F16 uses GPT, how does one check that. Thanks...

---------- Post added at 02:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 PM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by kurtdriver

This has been my experience installing to USB keys from live-cds or install discs. I've always, if I recall correctly, had to run fdisk and toggle bootabilty afterwards.

Hi
The fdisk on F16 does not respond very well to GPT partition tables. It just says it is not equipped to handle them. The MBR is not even seen. I have used Gparted 0.11.0-7 and it is there but no way of knowing what to do about it.

Chilly Willy · #11 19th February 2012, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertdaleweir

Hi
I am sorry. Of course you are correct. Because F16 uses GPT, how does one check that. Thanks...[COLOR="Silver"]
.

I really don't know... I'm still learning all this too. I would guess that is where such app as "fedora liveUSB creator" come in.

Some say it doesn't work though, I personally haven't tried it yet, but plan to. I only mention it as it is the only one for LINUX I can think of.

robertdaleweir · #12 19th February 2012, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

I really don't know... I'm still learning all this too. I would guess that is where such app as "fedora liveUSB creator" come in.

Some say it doesn't work though, I personally haven't tried it yet, but plan to. I only mention it as it is the only one for LINUX I can think of.

Hi
Yes I will give that a bit of research. Thanks for your help...

Fenrin · #13 20th February 2012, 12:38 AM

I have had good results with livecd-iso-to-disk.

if git isn't installed:

Code:

yum install git

as user:

Code:

git clone git://fedorahosted.org/livecd

then use livecd-iso-to-disk tool from the terminal (location at livecd/tools) as root.

here is a example how to use it. I mostly don't use "--home-size-mb 2047 --overlay-size-mb 2047 --unencrypted-home" if space is limited. If the thumb drive has any issues with the parttition table or MBR, this tool will warn you at the beginning.

robertdaleweir · #14 20th February 2012, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenrin

I have had good results with livecd-iso-to-disk.

if git isn't installed:

Code:

yum install git

as user:

Code:

git clone git://fedorahosted.org/livecd

then use livecd-iso-to-disk tool from the terminal (location at livecd/tools) as root.

here is a example how to use it. I mostly don't use "--home-size-mb 2047 --overlay-size-mb 2047 --unencrypted-home" if space is limited. If the thumb drive has any issues with the parttition table or MBR, this tool will warn you at the beginning.

Hi
I was attempting to do a Full Install of the OS, as I had done on my 32 Gig Drive, not get a Bootable Live Distro. I am aware of the 'persistent storage' option but that is not what I am looking for. There must be some serious difference between USB Sticks and SSD Drives that I am missing. Thanks for the help...

Chilly Willy · #15 20th February 2012, 04:24 AM

IIRC, there WAS something else that I read about, on this forum, that I think was along the lines of what you are doing. It was an alternate to the app I mentioned. I THINK it may have been UNetbootin, or the "dd" command. But I'm not 100% sure if I recall this correctly, so take it for what it's worth. - I at least hope it helps to points you in the right direction.

Doing a bit (a very small bit) of reading on this, it seems to me that you MAY need to make an ISO of your attempt on the SSD HD & use it to make the thumb drive. (just a hunch)
I've found that at times I had to take a two step approach & jump threw hoops to get what I wanted on a lot of this stuff. Yours may be the case, too.