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Booting Ubuntu from a SATA to USB External Drive

post #1 of 2
4/8/06 at 1:33pm
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I've wanted to install Ubuntu on my external SATA drive for a while and I finally got around to trying this weekend, but I ran into some problems. When I try to install Ubuntu using the 5.10 install CD, I get to the loading partitioner part and it stalls at 41% and then says there was an error and only gives me my notebook's internal harddrive as an option. I connected my other firewire storage drive and it could see that one, but it doesn't see my USB SATA drive and I was wondering if anyone knows what the problem might be?
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post #2 of 2
4/11/06 at 1:56am
I'll give this a shot - but keep in mind that I know zilch about Ubuntu. (I'm gentoo/debian/SuSE)

Just from what you have said, I'd say the problem is with USB. The firewire drive pretty much validates the hotplugging & scsi disk OS subsystems. The only obvious difference is the bus.

1) what is the error message you are seeing? (check dmesg & /var/log/messages, if you can get to them, too.)

2) are you sure this SATA/USB drive works? Have you seen it working on another system?

3) don't get hung up on the SATA part. Once the drive is installed in an external USB enclosure, it's just another USB drive.

4) are you sure your USB is working? Have you tried a usb mouse or something? What's the hardware? (laptop model? I've seen some new USB driver modules in the newer kernels [non-E/U/OHCI])

5) can you get to a command line from the Ubuntu install? If so, try running '/sbin/lsusb' and see if you can see the drive on the usb bus. If 'lsusb' isn't found, then check in /proc/bus/usb/devices [this is where lsusb gets its info from].



troymc
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