# USB boot

## cascamorto

Hi i already have a desktop with XP/Gentoo boot. But i also have a ACER TRAVELMATE 4072 WLMi and an external HD. As i wanted to leave the internal HD alone with its XP install i was wondering wether it was possibile to boot off the external HD and install gentoo and lilo (or grub) in the external HD so that if i boot when i'm out and about without my external HD it just starts XP with no problems... Also my travelmate doesn't have an option in it's BIOS to boot from USB.... Is this a problem?

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## Roman_Gruber

First Backup your System.

I recommend to use gparted live cd to create a small boot partition on your internal hard disk.

Install there grub and boot windows then with makeactive ....

Maybe its possible to load gentoo then from usb. depends on the device, I have never tried it, but I am interested in.

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## cascamorto

i will try as soon as i get my travelmate back from ACER cuz i flashed the BIOS and it didn't go so well.... So they have it to restore the BIOS version at the mo...

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## cascamorto

the usb boot works fine. Just one little thing: when i starts loading at one point it stops and says that /dev/sda2 is not a valid root device and that i have to specify a valid one. So i type /dev/sda2 and then it runs fine. Whay to i have to tell it to use the same device it tried to use?

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## lindegur

Here you find how to boot and run gentoo from an external USB disk.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-333824-highlight-.html?sid=e65162059da7207832868bc43e4857e4

I'm using it since 2005 and did obviously a lot of emerges since then. There are also some other people using it successfully.

I've heard that on new kernels there should be a kernel boot-parameter that prevents kernel panics when booting from usb. This would allow booting without using initrd. This is why I look now in the discussion forum. Does somebody know about it? 

Regards UrsLast edited by lindegur on Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:20 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## cascamorto

my install works... It's just that i have to repeat /dev/sda2 everytime i boot.

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## hpeters

 *cascamorto wrote:*   

> my install works... It's just that i have to repeat /dev/sda2 everytime i boot.

 

Try adding rootdelay=10 to the kernel section of your grub menu.lst or equivlent if using lilo.

Example:

title=MythTV-64Bit

        root (hd0,0)

        kernel /bzImage root=/dev/sda2 rootdelay=5 vga=0x318

I know it's needed when booting from a usb flash drive rootdelay=5 works for me.

Harley

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## lindegur

Finally I found time to test it.

Without rootdelay I get the kernel panic errors as before. 

However with rootdelay it works perfectly.  :Laughing: 

Time to declare my old method as historic.   :Crying or Very sad:  However I have learnt a lot  :Cool: 

Thanks for the help  :Wink: 

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