The USB-key drive is often recommended for a) a small bootable system
to do system maintenance, b) a way to install a debian system.

I find directions on how to prepare a USB-key to do one or the other,
but not how to do both with the same USB-key. Is it possible to boot
to grub and in its menu choose between either doing maintenance on the
current hard disk or running the installer to install a basic debian
system on a new hard disk?

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Haines Brown, KB1GRM





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Hi.

> Is it possible to boot to grub and in its menu choose between either doing
maintenance on the
> current hard disk or running the installer to install a basic debian
> system on a new hard disk?

Last xmas i do something similar for some customers.
My usb-key drive was so 'configured':
- a multimedia distro: geexbox
- a tiny debian distribution: DamnSmallLinux
- a tiny System Utility distribution (Gentoo based): SystemRescueCD
- a tiny Slack distro: Slack PopCorn Edition
...all bootable from Grub.

And there was also installed WinPenPack to allow to run some GPL
applications from Window$ without install anything.

I don't remember well the way i do that, but all i remember is:
1 - install geexbox on the usb-key (you can do that with 'hd-install' option
while booting geexbox);
2 - copy all the DamnSmallLinux, SystemRescueCD, Slack to the root
partition;
3 - edit the grub (installed by geexbox) with the new kernel and verify
device.map;
4 - personalize grub - background, timeout, default etc etc;

So, the way i do that is installing on yhe usb-key a distribution that allow
the boot via grub (not syslinux).
>From that there was not problem.

If you want i can share this usb-key image (only 512 MB!!), so you can look
at that.
Hope it s you!
Bye!

Mirco, first I should apologize for having posted my question twice in
the group. Don't know how I did that.

In your experiment, you installed multiple distros. But I assume that
the installation routine is quite different from the installer unless
the debian installer is kind of a live system that could be added to
grub menu.

But maybe I'm imagining there's a problem. You say that with the
geexbox distsro on the key, you choose its "hd-install" option. Is
that to install the geexbox on a hard disk from usb-key? If so, does
DamnSmallLinux boot have such an option (long time since I last
booted)? If so, my question would be moot.

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Haines Brown, KB1GRM





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Hi!

> In your experiment, you installed multiple distros. But I assume that
> the installation routine is quite different from the installer unless
> the debian installer is kind of a live system that could be added to
> grub menu.


well, i use geexbox live-cd, using "hd-install" (or "install-hd", i don't
remember well :-)) choosing the usb-key drive as HD on which install it.
Then, to add the many distros, i use live cds (dsl, slack & systemrescuecd).

For example, damn small linux live cd use syslinux to boot.
So, i look at kernel and initrd listed in it's /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
(the syslinux configuration file in the live cdrom, in this case from the
old version i used):

DEFAULT linux24
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791
initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
TIMEOUT 300

...and modify grub menu.lst (the grub installed by geexbox, in the usb-key
drive) in this way:
.....
title DamnSmallLinux (GNU/Debian based)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /dsl/linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=it apm=power-off
vga=791
initrd /dsl/minirt24.gz nomce noapic quiet frugal restore=sda1
BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
boot
......

So i "convert" syslinux boot string into a grub stanza.
I don't install DSL in any way, i boot that in LIVE mode from usb-key drive.

And so on for the other distributions.
So i think that there's no problem with the debian net-install (for example:
looking at debian-40r1-i386-netinst.iso) - there's a folder called
"isolinux" with file "isolinux.cfg":
....
LABEL install
kernel /install.386/vmlinuz
append vga=normal initrd=/install.386/initrd.gz --
LABEL linux
kernel /install.386/vmlinuz
append vga=normal initrd=/install.386/initrd.gz --
LABEL installgui
kernel /install.386/vmlinuz
append video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=788
initrd=/install.386/gtk/initrd.gz --

LABEL expert
kernel /install.386/vmlinuz
append priority=low vga=normal initrd=/install.386/initrd.gz --
LABEL expertgui
kernel /install.386/vmlinuz
append priority=low video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=788
initrd=/install.386/gtk/initrd.gz --
....
where you can find out the kernel, the initrd and many boot options.
You had to copy all the contents of the live cd (excluded autorun.*,
readme.* etc etc, if you want) and edit grub menu.lst.

Instead of grub you can use syslinux (i don't remember why i choose to use
grub, at the end).
But the way is about the same: you must put in one file (grub way:
menu.lstor syslinux way:
syslinux.cfg ) the boot string for all the kernel you have in the usb-key
drive.

Hope it s you a little more...

Bye!