I have a laptop with a card reader using an 8GB SDHC. I have the BIOS option to boot from it along with from a 1.6GB USB stick in a USB port. I am trying to be able to install linux full install from a live CD, currently Fedora 16 but have tried Linux Mint and Ubuntu, but the installs wont boot, the boot loader seems to be ignored and goes to the next device. I can install a liveCD to USB using unetbootin or universalusbinstaller and these boot but I want a full install. Fedora doesnt have persistence on a liveUSB install either so isnt very useful. I have tried lots of different partitioning methods and tried GPT and MBR options. I have tried rescatux,gparted,partedmagic and supergrub2 but still cant find a way to make the SDHC card bootable with a full install of any linux distro. This doesnt seem distro specific or partition method filesystem related so I can only workout so far that it might be the grub bootlaoder on the SDHC. Any info much appreciated.
You may have to hit F12 on boot or similar on your computer to tell it to boot from a device other than your CDROM or primary hard drive. You might be able to alter the boot order more persistently in your CMOS settings, how to get there is system and model dependent.
I have just disabled all other boot devices in the BIOS and removed the USB stick and CD from the drive but it still doesnt boot. it just says Operating system not found.As a last resort it would probably boot if the bootloader was installed to the internal HDD but I have windows 7 on this and want to leave it untouched if possible.
It seems to have not installed a bootloader on your SDHC device, then. Or perhaps your system is one of the many that don't work quite right booting from USB hard-drive emulation.
I can boot from the SDHC using a liveCD install from unetbbotin which uses syslinux on FAT32. Anyone know if theres a way of doing a full install using syslinux ?
The gentoo liveusb instructions may be partly useful. It shows how to install the precompiled syslinux master boot record to your flash media.
Their instructions install all data after they do so however, so I don't know if the instructions would preserve your existing installation. Back up your boot sector and partition structure first.
It needs FAT32 partition for syslinux but I cant do a full install on to FAT32. I have tried a small FAt32 partition and tried supergrub2,rescatux in it then done a full install but it doesnt boot to the full install. I then tried reinstalling supergrub2 to the partition after the full install but no luck so far. I have set up /boot 100mb EXT2, /swap 1024mb, /root 5120mb EXT3 on the SDHC card
You'll need to install grub, then, from some sort of linux livecd. Make sure your boot partition is mounted on /boot. Your boot partition should also contain a symlink named 'boot' that just links to the current directory, like
cd /boot ; ln -s . boot
grub-install /dev/sda
Not necessarily sda! Use the right device for your file.
Then you'll have to customize your menu.lst so it finds your partitions.