Re: [Devil-linux-develop] usb boot

[Bruce S. <bw...@ar...>]

> >Do you want me to install grub on DL, and write a install-on-usb
> >script using GRUB with a boot menu and a horned-Tux background?
> 
> Sure! Go ahead, would look much better !

OK, I modified the install-on-usb script to use grub.
(your lilo code is still in there, and can be selected by changing 
one line in the script)  

Give grub a try and see how it looks and works for you! :-)

I still want to rework some of the code so it detects the device file
better (right now it's detecting my SCSI HDD as a USB stick).

And there is one current limitation in my grub code.  It will only work
if DL is on the first partition of the USB device.  I can change that if
you want me to.  Or we can make the first partition a requirement.  Let
me know which why you'd like it.

> >> >I got a few misc. errors, but nothing that sounded too serious.
> >> >It came up, I logged in, ran setup, ... everything seemed to work.
> >> >(except my NIC module (3c2000) doesn't exist in DL - not surprised)
> >> >
> >> >Anything specific you want me to try?
> >>
> >> Do a save-config and reboot a few times.
> >
> >OK, I can try that tomorrow (LUG tonight, out of time now).
> 
> Yeah I have SCUBA club meeting today.

How many times do I need to reboot for it to happen?
I did it a few times without a problem.

One possible problem that people may run into is they do a save-config,
and reboot with a power-cycle or RESET button.  The buffer hasn't been
written out to the USB stick when save-config completes.

I recommend putting a "sync" at the end of the save-config script.

> >> I had a corrupt file system, it couldn't load the modules....
> >
> >I noticed you don't have the "ro" boot parameter in lilo.conf.
> >Could that be the cause of your problem?
> >(I put "ro" in my grub.conf and it didn't _cause_ any problems)
> 
> Just try to do a save-config with the RO. ;-)

It works fine.  The "ro" _KERNEL_ option mounts it initially RO, but the
startup script remounts it RW.

> >Should the USB media be write protected during boot, or not?
> 
> I would say so, but for testing it doesn't make sense.
> 
> >Is it OK to change the write protect switch while it's running
> >(for save-config)?

I booted up with the USB stick write protected.  I then switched the USB
to RW and ran save-config.  save-config failed because the filesystem
was still mounted RO.  Then I ran a "mount / -oremount,rw" and
save-config worked.

Maybe you should check for that in save-config.  If the root partition
is RO, do a -oremount,rw at the beginning and a -oremount,ro at the end?

 - BS