Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 206555
Install on USB external disk: Please help!
Last modified: 2008-04-24 10:36:17 EDT
Description of problem: Install does not find external disks when it looks for places to install FC5. "linux expert" mode does find external drive, but the installed version is not correct. After the install, one must re-boot with the rescue disk and then run mkinitrd and include a list of modules to allow external drive to be mounted. Even after that, the install will probably not work if there is another install of FC5 on an internal disk because drives are given identical labels like "/home" and "/boot". Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): FC5 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Plug in external usb disk & boot from FC5 install disk 2. Go through hassle of trying to install linux on the external disk. 3. Actual results: Expected results: Additional info: I think the mkinitrd part of the problem is pretty easy to fix. In the script that runs after the kernel is installed and it puts the entry in grub, just add more preload options. This one works mkinitrd ––preload=ehci–hcd ––preload=usb–storage ––preload=scsi_mod ––preload=sd_mod /boot/initrd_usb.gz 2.6.9–1.667 The harder problem is how to fix labels. I've done this exercise several times and the problem is that the installer might find LABEL=/ on an internal drive when I wish it would find it on the external. I BELIEVE the only fix is for you to have the thing that creates labels use a unique name for the disk. For example, ask the user "what suffix word do you use to refer to this hard disk" and so when labels are created, they are unique names, "/.usb1" or "/home.usb1" Or, even better, if you use the names of the devices themselves as suffixes, then the names could be kept unique. It is a hassle to change drive labels and make the reboot work--/etc/fstab is not what it used to be. It seems like I edit fstab and then it gets changed automatically by some other program. It is getting harder and harder for old timers like me to fix the "automagical" linux things. I think this is one bug that should definitely be fixed before FC6.
Installation on USB drives isn't supported in FC5 -- it should work with the FC6 test releases.
I've tried to install FC6 to an external USB drive. Several things go wrong. Perhaps you did not understand what I was asking for before. I want to install Linux so that I can take the external disk to a different computer and start Linux there. I DO NOT want the external disk to assume it is always plugged into this same computer. But anaconda just does it all wrong, just like it did it wrong before. 1. The boot loader refuses to go into /dev/sdb. It offers /dev/sdb1, and so when the system re-starts, it locks at GRUB 2. I did try the trick of re-booting with the rescue disk and rebuilding the initrd and running grub again, but it failed. It hangs at boot because it cannot find /dev and /sys. 3. I can remove the hard disk from this computer and do an install. Then FC6 does install fine. And it does start. However, when I put the first disk back into the computer, then the system won't boot off the USB external disk anymore. That happens even though the BIOS has been set to boot off the external USB drive. I suspect the problem there is that the external drive was hd0 when it was the only computer, but when the other is in, the external drive is hd1, and it goes splat. 4. The disk labels created on /dev/sdb are EXACTLY THE SAME LABELS as used on the FC-5 install that already exists in /dev/sda. If I'm ever lucky enough to get the external USB to boot, it is all puzzled. In FC5, when I made the external disk start, I had to re-label all the partitions, or else disaster resulted. So, in conclusion, I think you were a bit cavalier to close this bug when I filed it against FC5.
Fedora apologizes that these issues have not been resolved yet. We're sorry it's taken so long for your bug to be properly triaged and acted on. We appreciate the time you took to report this issue and want to make sure no important bugs slip through the cracks. If you're currently running a version of Fedora Core between 1 and 6, please note that Fedora no longer maintains these releases. We strongly encourage you to upgrade to a current Fedora release. In order to refocus our efforts as a project we are flagging all of the open bugs for releases which are no longer maintained and closing them. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LifeCycle/EOL If this bug is still open against Fedora Core 1 through 6, thirty days from now, it will be closed 'WONTFIX'. If you can reporduce this bug in the latest Fedora version, please change to the respective version. If you are unable to do this, please add a comment to this bug requesting the change. Thanks for your help, and we apologize again that we haven't handled these issues to this point. The process we are following is outlined here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/F9CleanUp We will be following the process here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping to ensure this doesn't happen again. And if you'd like to join the bug triage team to help make things better, check out http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers
f9 has a livecd that allows to put fedora in a usb stick.