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Zubbeli · 2010-10-17, 17:38

Hi specialists :-)
I searched a lot but did not found any clue on this here.
I would like to make an installation from the Dharma 3 Live CD to an external USB-Harddisk.
When I get to the menu were I have to configure my partitions I'm not be able to see my external USB-Harddisk - the internal disk is shown only. Is there any way to add this disk there? The harddisk is recognized by the bios correctly (by the way, it's an ASUS EEEBox 1501).
Thanks a lot for any hint!

pumkinut · 2010-10-17, 19:06

I'd be interested in finding this out as well.

zimdba · 2010-10-17, 22:41

pumkinut Wrote:I'd be interested in finding this out as well.

If you're using Windows, you can use unetbootin/ to generate a bootable flash drive from the downloaded iso. If you want your settings & library saved, then you have to make a "live-rw" partition on the flash drive.

pumkinut · 2010-10-18, 13:52

I know how to use unetbootin. I've done it as a workaround in the past. It's not answering the question. How does the beta3 cd need to bechanges so that it recognizes an external USB HDD?

Zubbeli · 2010-10-20, 18:11

pumkinut: I think what you want to do is to add an external HD to you existing Dharma installation, correct? I just want to do a complete installation to an external HD (to test Dharma from there) but I do not have the possibility to choose that drive in the installation wizard from the live cd (startmenu at boot).

SpitIV · 2010-10-20, 18:26

Can you see the portable drive in the BIOS? Try changing the boot order to prioritize the portable drive?

Did you try the option to "Manually Partition" rather than "Automatically Partition"?

This was happening to me (zotac mag) and some monkeying around with the above resolved it for me.

pumkinut · (This post was last modified: 2010-10-20, 18:32 by pumkinut.)

No, adding mounting a USB drive to an existing install works as it should. I'd like to have the USB drive recognized during a full install, as you are asking as well. From what I've read some kernel modules, usb-storage is one of them IIRC, need to be be called by grub and/or added to init on the LiveCD. Since I don't know enough about working with an ISO image and then rewriting it back to an install medium, I can't do this myself.

The whole reason I'd like to use a USB attached HDD as an install location is to give me a sandbox install that I can break and use more than once. This could be done with BDW and a thumbdrive, but a lot of my thumbdrives are starting to show signs of wear due to the extended amount of reads and writes. A USB HDD should be a more robust solution. I know it can be done, as I've installed Linux (Ubuntu 8.x) to a USB HDD. I can plug it into my laptop and run Linux that when when I want to.

Edit:
SpitIV, at least in my case, the USB drive is visible in the BIOS, but the partitioner portion of the install will not see it due to it being viewed as usb-storage and that particular kernel module is not being loaded by the CD during the install process. This is both using the "Manual Partition" and "Automatically Partition".

Zubbeli · 2010-10-22, 10:23

The same here as pumpkinut described.

Meanwhile I have installed the Dharma 3 beta to the internal drive....

lat297 · 2010-10-22, 10:44

I had the same issue, didn't see my USB drive and only gave the option to install to internal HDD.

So I selected 'BACK' in the installer (from the list of detected HDDs), then back again, unplugged my USB drive and plugged it back in again, and from the big menu of options for the installer, chose 'Detect Drives'. When the partitioner loads back up the USB drive was selected, I then chose 'guided partitioning' and it did the rest for me...

"SUCCESS", I thought. And then I tried to boot from USB, and got an error (which I have logged as another thread) which I believe is due to the partition UUID being incorrectly set by the installer...

Luke

pumkinut · 2010-10-22, 16:15

Hmmm, I'll have to try that and see if I get anywhere. If the UUID is wrong, that may be able to be fixed through the grub interface, but I'm not sure.

**loot87** · 2010-10-22, 17:43

Why install to the USB drive? Why not just keep booting from it and don't try to install?

pumkinut · 2010-10-22, 17:48

Read 4 posts above yours. Plus, it's an option that's been available before and now is not, we'd like to know why.

**loot87** · 2010-10-22, 18:07

I did.

"The whole reason I'd like to use a USB attached HDD as an install location is to give me a sandbox install that I can break and use more than once. This could be done with BDW and a thumbdrive, but a lot of my thumbdrives are starting to show signs of wear due to the extended amount of reads and writes. A USB HDD should be a more robust solution. I know it can be done, as I've installed Linux (Ubuntu 8.x) to a USB HDD. I can plug it into my laptop and run Linux that when when I want to."

Seems like setting up the USB drive just like a thumb drive is what he wants. And that means using unetbootin on the drive, just like the flash, and not installing, right?

pumkinut · 2010-10-22, 18:42

No.

It doesn't mean using unetbootin. It means having the LiveCD recognize the USB attached HDD and being able to natively install to it. As has been said, this was a viable option in the past, but the correct kernel modules are not being loaded by grub and init during the LiveCD install process anymore, therefore the USB HDD is not being recognized by the partitioning part of the install. lat297 reported that there may be a workaround, but it looks like there may be an issue with that as well. Using unetbootin is an unnecessary kludge, and it is not without its own set of issues.

Being able to natively install to a USB HDD is nice in that it's a robust medium, alleviates space limitations that thumbdrives may represent, and it doesn't affect an install that may reside on the internal HDD. It also doesn't require repartitioning e.g. adding a new partition and moving things around on an internal HDD.

Previously, during an install, if a USB HDD was present, and the correct kernel modules were loaded, the USB device would show up like a normal drive that the partitioner and installer were able to use normally. This is not the case anymore.

**loot87** · 2010-10-22, 18:46

I get that you used to be able to do it. But the primary objective is to use it like a flash drive without worrying about flash wear issues. If he can attain his primary objective by using a USB HDD in place of thumb drive, problem solved.

Just trying to help.