Can't boot to Porteus USB if installed on HD? [Solved]
Posted: 06 Jan 2015, 22:16
I have a test system with an on-board 4 GB SATA Flash drive that I installed Porteus 3.0.1 (32-bit) onto.
I then took a 16 GB USB drive with Porteus 3.0.1 (32-bit) installed on it, and attempted to boot to it.
I use the boot selection feature of the BIOS to ensure that I am booting to the USB drive. The Porteus boot menu that comes up does belong to the USB drive (I added "U" to the end of the boot menu title in the porteus.cfg). I choose the top option, which is to boot to the Desktop (LXDE).
When the booting is completed, however, I realize that I have booted to the onboard SATA Flash drive. I can tell because the files on the desktop are different.
Here are the combinations I have tried:
If I have both drives connected and enabled, boot the system, and choose to boot to the onboard SATA drive, then the SATA drive Porteus boot menu comes up, and if I select LXDE, it boots to the SATA drive. I notice that the USB drive has not been mounted on /mnt.
If I boot the system, choose to boot to the USB drive, then the USB drive Porteus boot menu comes up, and if I select LXDE, it boots to the SATA drive. Again the USB drive is not mounted.
If I choose to boot from the USB drive, and choose "Always Fresh" instead of the LXDE desktop, then it boots to the USB drive like it should.
If I go into the BIOS and completely disable the onboard SATA flash drive, then it boots to the USB just fine.
If I remove the USB drive, then it boots to the onboard SATA drive just fine.
In other words, it seems that no matter what I choose as far as a boot device, it is using the /porteus directory on the onboard SATA drive if it can. Is that working as intended? I would have thought that it would use the /porteus directory on the drive you chose to boot to, regardless.
I know that I can specify where the /porteus directory comes from via cheat codes, so i could tell the USB key to always try to use /dev/sdb1....but won't that cause problems when I try booting to a system that has no on-board SATA drive (because the USB key would then be mapped to /dev/sda1, right)?
I basically want to be able to boot and run from the USB key no matter what, whether the system has a hard drive in it with Porteus installed, or not.
I then took a 16 GB USB drive with Porteus 3.0.1 (32-bit) installed on it, and attempted to boot to it.
I use the boot selection feature of the BIOS to ensure that I am booting to the USB drive. The Porteus boot menu that comes up does belong to the USB drive (I added "U" to the end of the boot menu title in the porteus.cfg). I choose the top option, which is to boot to the Desktop (LXDE).
When the booting is completed, however, I realize that I have booted to the onboard SATA Flash drive. I can tell because the files on the desktop are different.
Here are the combinations I have tried:
If I have both drives connected and enabled, boot the system, and choose to boot to the onboard SATA drive, then the SATA drive Porteus boot menu comes up, and if I select LXDE, it boots to the SATA drive. I notice that the USB drive has not been mounted on /mnt.
If I boot the system, choose to boot to the USB drive, then the USB drive Porteus boot menu comes up, and if I select LXDE, it boots to the SATA drive. Again the USB drive is not mounted.
If I choose to boot from the USB drive, and choose "Always Fresh" instead of the LXDE desktop, then it boots to the USB drive like it should.
If I go into the BIOS and completely disable the onboard SATA flash drive, then it boots to the USB just fine.
If I remove the USB drive, then it boots to the onboard SATA drive just fine.
In other words, it seems that no matter what I choose as far as a boot device, it is using the /porteus directory on the onboard SATA drive if it can. Is that working as intended? I would have thought that it would use the /porteus directory on the drive you chose to boot to, regardless.
I know that I can specify where the /porteus directory comes from via cheat codes, so i could tell the USB key to always try to use /dev/sdb1....but won't that cause problems when I try booting to a system that has no on-board SATA drive (because the USB key would then be mapped to /dev/sda1, right)?
I basically want to be able to boot and run from the USB key no matter what, whether the system has a hard drive in it with Porteus installed, or not.