I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 with a Maxtor 80GB HDD in a USB 2.0/Firewire 400 enclosure. I know that this computer can boot USB devices. I want to be able to install Debian on the external HDD.
I downloaded and wrote to the disk the 110MB sarge netinst debian-install image I pulled down yesterday. I removed the internal hard drive to ensure the installation process wouldn't mess up Windows XP (can't be harmed). I booted the disk with the command "linux26 hd-detect/start_pcmcia=false" because without the last statement, the computer would freeze when PC card services started. When installing the base system, it would get to 40% and stop for a minute. The screen would turn red and tell me the debootstrap failed with error 2. I checked the F3 screen and it couldn't find the USB device files. I think it reads the base install up to 40% and then begins writing but it has some trouble mounting the partitions. By the time it hits the debootstrap error, the busy light on the drive is on constantly. I try and return to the partition stage of the install and no drives are listed. I'll go back and write down all the errors I get and some more observations, if any. In the meantime, am I going about this correctly? If I can do these things, I should be fine: 1. I can tell GRUB (I think only able) to boot USB. 2. Compile USB so it can mount / as opposed to a seperate USB module from the kernel because the modules would have to be in /lib on another USB partition. Thanks in advance, Nate. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
