Installing and booting from a removable drive

[lauwers]

I like to install Fedora 8 on a removable drive and also to but GRUb on this drive
Because my fixed drives are occupied by windows xp and suse 10.3 and I like to keep it untouched
I do know if t is possible or not and how to do this ?
At this moment I only have the live cd is it recommended to down load the install DVD



Please give some advise

Many thanks

[loodpool]

which kind of removable drive ?
scsi, usb ?
anyway, to install fc8 you'll need to download the innstall dvd.

[lauwers]

Sorry I forget to mention it is USB hard drive 360 GB

All the best

[meowdin]

agreed with the dvd, maybe you try boot on dvd with usb hd attached....(then install)

I guess it will help to provide the /boot/grub/menu.lst (could be access from Yast->boot loader

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Mar 4 20:39:28 SGT 2008
default 0
timeout 0
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.17-0.1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.17-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_IC25N060ATMR04-_MRA301KJHXEHAH-part1 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/sda3 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.17-0.1-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.17-0.1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.17-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_IC25N060ATMR04-_MRA301KJHXEHAH-part1 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.17-0.1-default

I guess you need to add another item in the menu, then point it to the fedora's boot kernel after installation , too bad I only have opensuse at home....

[loodpool]

to my knowledge it's not possible with usb drive.
if you change usb port your device name in /dev will change. Then grub or Yast will not find the correct drive name.
You better install a new internal drive or try to remap your partitions to have enough space for fc8.

[lauwers]

My intention is to boot up fedora 8 from usb Because my computer give the option to boot
from a removable drive eq a usb drive so the grub of fedora 8 must be on the usb drive too
and I do not know if this is possible with fedora 8
It possible with suse but then I have replace suse by fedora and put suse on the usb driv
But that is a lot of work
I know that booting in this way I have to enter the bios setup to choice between the OS

All the best

[loodpool]

you better try Linux usb

[lauwers]

Why because I read that it possible to do so with PC linux
So I am wandering why it is not possible with Fedora 8

all the best

[zoltan]

Yes, it's possible. I have Fedora 8 installed on a USB drive, runs quite happily.

Just run a normal install, but make absolutely sure that when it reaches the grub install that you tell it to boot from whatever your USB drive is listed as.
(I made the mistake of selecting the wrong drive once and overwrote the MBR of my Windows drive)

Once installed, enable USB boot in the BIOS and it should boot from the USB drive.

Originally Posted by lauwers

Why because I read that it possible to do so with PC linux
So I am wandering why it is not possible with Fedora 8

all the best

[meowdin]

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.23.15-137.fc8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.15-137.fc8 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.23.15-137.fc8.img

Here's my menu.lst from fedora, maybe just append this thing to the menulist in oopensuse and change the hd(0,0) to hd(1,0) or something will work....

or maybe add this in the boot.ini in windows.... not so sure tho