Booting linux on USB-sticks.

[David A. Bandel]

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 6:07 AM, Jerry McBride <mcbrides9 at comcast.net> wrote:
> On Tuesday 10 March 2009 09:38:07 pm Kurt Wall wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 07:42:27PM -0500, Jerry McBride wrote:
>> > On Tuesday 10 March 2009 12:00:17 am Kurt Wall wrote:
>> > > On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 04:54:42PM -0500, Jerry McBride wrote:
>>
>> [no USB boot love]
>>
>> > > > It would seem to me, that if you can partition and format a usb
>> > > > stick, then surely it should behave like a normal bootable media,
>> > > > without the need for the initd nonsense.
>> > >
>> > > What's in the initrd?
>> > >
>> > > Kurt
>> >
>> > It's a kernel, modules and an init script. This loads, before it loads
>> > the normal stuff off the stick. What I don't understand is, why can it
>> > boot the kernel in the inird, but not the kernel I put into /boot.
>>
>> I know what an initrd is. What I'm asking is what modules are there in the
>> initrd that aren't in the kernel that's in /boot?
>>
>> Kurt
>
> They are identical. Boot fails as the kernel goes access the file system.
> Stuffing the same exact setup into the initrd boots, but trying to boot
> directly to the kernel on the stick fails.

Because you don't have the module required to mount the USB stick.
The error message you posted above about VFS not able to mount should
be a big stick hitting you about the head and shoulders.

You need to recompile the kernel with the modules compiled into the
kernel that allow the USB stick to be mounted and read.

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
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