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VectorLinux > The nuts and bolts > Technical General > Dual-boot Flash Drive?
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Author Topic: Dual-boot Flash Drive?  (Read 2954 times)
gacl
Vectorite
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Posts: 218
« on: January 14, 2008, 02:47:26 pm »
Question: Can i put the 5.8 installer and 5.8 live in a USB flash drive and boot either one? Just plug it in, turn on the computer, and get either LiLo or GrUB, and then boot either into the installer or live? Is this possible? Thanks.

Gus
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
uelsk8s
Administrator
Vectorian
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Posts: 2476
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2008, 03:47:11 pm »
It is possible, I have on around here that does that.
I dont remember the exact steps I used to get it going though
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gacl
Vectorite
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Posts: 218
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2008, 01:58:54 pm »
No luck on this so far. This is what i've done:

-Make two partitions and copy the contents of the installer CD and the live CD
-Copy /etc/lilo.conf to the sda1
-Change boot = /dev/hda to boot = /dev/sda
-Comment out bitmap = /boot/bitmap/boot.bmp
-Change image = /boot/vmlinuz to image = /isolinux/inird.img
-Change root = /dev/hda1 to root = /dev/sda1

I get this error:

Code:
root:# lilo -C /mnt/vl-hot/sda/vol1/etc/lilo.conf -b /dev/sda
Warning: Ignoring entry 'boot'
Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Warning: /dev/sda is not on the first disk
Warning: The boot sector and map file are on different disks.
Fatal: open /isolinux/inird.img: No such file or directory

Gus
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
gacl
Vectorite
***
Posts: 218
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2008, 06:19:57 pm »
OK, i've decided to go a different way. I think that it _may_ be possible to do a multiple boot with extlinux ( isolinux ). So, i simply did "extlinux isolinux" while in the flash drive and copied isolinux.cfg to extlinux.conf. sda1 is now booting all-right, but now i have to figure out how to include sda2 and get a prompt of some sort. Modify extlinux.conf?
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
uelsk8s
Administrator
Vectorian
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Posts: 2476
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2008, 06:27:06 pm »
on my drive i have them both in the same partition and choose them by typing either live or installer.
you may be able to set them up in extlinux.conf
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gacl
Vectorite
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Posts: 218
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2008, 07:37:28 pm »
You're right. There are no files or directories in common between them, so it's just a matter of copying both CDs into one partition and merging the extlinux.conf files.
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
gacl
Vectorite
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Posts: 218
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2008, 09:05:08 pm »
While editing the extlinux.conf file i've come across something very annoying: I can't copy from vi. In 5.8 all i had to do was select and middle click ( actually, click the two buttons at the same time ).
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
uelsk8s
Administrator
Vectorian
*****
Posts: 2476
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2008, 09:16:36 pm »
Quote from: gacl on January 16, 2008, 09:05:08 pm
While editing the extlinux.conf file i've come across something very annoying: I can't copy from vi. In 5.8 all i had to do was select and middle click ( actually, click the two buttons at the same time ).
yes it is very annoying but I like using the mouse scroll.
to turn it off either
   1. issue the command :set mouse-=a
   2. insert "set mouse-=a" into your ~/.vimrc file
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gacl
Vectorite
***
Posts: 218
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2008, 11:26:51 pm »
Done!

I don't know why i had so much trouble with ext3, though. I would get something like this:

Code:
root:# fsck /dev/sda1
fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006)
e2fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006)
/dev/sda1 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inode 7 has illegal block(s).  Clear<y>? yes

Illegal block #262156 (1163153230) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262157 (1750343713) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262158 (1346838629) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262159 (1700929612) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262160 (544698220) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262161 (1663071081) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262162 (1920561263) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262163 (1952999273) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262164 (1646290021) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262165 (1752440953) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Illegal block #262166 (1917198437) in inode 7.  CLEARED.
Too many illegal blocks in inode 7.
Clear inode<y>? yes

Inode 8 has illegal block(s).  Clear<y>? yes

. . . and it would go on forever. Like the file system just gets corrupted for no reason. Then i gave up and just did it with vfat, which gave me no trouble.

Summary:

- Copy both, the live CD and the installer into the same partition ( /dev/sda1 )
- Move isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg
- Merge whatever that has to be merged ( isolinux.cfg, F1, and so on )
- Check and change any paths that have to be changed ( kernel, initrd, and so on )
- Do syslinux /dev/sda1 ( or extlinux, if that works for you )
- You may or may not have to do lilo -M /dev/sda

I think that's it. . .

- Boot and enjoy.


Gus
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
gacl
Vectorite
***
Posts: 218
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2008, 12:19:05 am »
Hm. . . I'm trying to put the 5.9 installer on a flash drive but i can't copy these files:

.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#CHECKSUMS.md5
.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#CHECKSUMS.md5.asc.head
.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#CHECKSUMS.md5.head
.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#PACKAGES.TXT
.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#PACKAGES.TXT.head
.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#patches#PACKAGES.TXT
.file:###mnt#cdrom#packages#patches#PACKAGES.TXT.head

I tried rsync and cp.

And thanks, uelsk8s, vi is behaving now.


Gus
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
uelsk8s
Administrator
Vectorian
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Posts: 2476
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2008, 12:26:23 am »
gacl,
you can safely delete those files.
they were from a test of putting a repo on the CD
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gacl
Vectorite
***
Posts: 218
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2008, 11:41:34 am »
No luck. I'm doing exactly the same steps that i did with the 5.8 dual CD but i always get "Boot failed". I've rewritten the MBR, placed syslinux.cfg in different places, i've done syslinux /dev/sda several times, renamed paths, dosfsck. . . but i always get the same error. I wonder what i'm missing. . .
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“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” -- Bill Moyers
uelsk8s
Administrator
Vectorian
*****
Posts: 2476
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2008, 11:55:24 am »
i wish i could be more help than this, but i have to many thing going ATM
get the vl-live tools package from here http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/Uelsk8s/vl-live-tools-1.0.6-i586-2vl59.tlz
inside there is a usb installer it may help
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