ext usb hd only boots from usb hub

[rockets]

I installed mandriva spring 2007.1 on a 20g usb hd in the first partition, partitioned for swap, fat 32, and another ext3 (empty, for now). The install was done with the drive connected to a powered usb hub. I would like to connect the drive directly to the laptop (hp/compaq nx6110) without the hub.

 

First boot connected to laptop; hangs at grub.

modified menu.lst to identify drive as sda.

Now hangs at some boot sequence that apparently tries to check the attached drives and gives error message;

'superblock corrupted, if sdb is really an ext2 formatted drive run e2fsk.'

 

I cannot even capture the boot message thats displayed.

 

I'm sure this is a simple problem to you experts, but its frustrating to an old windows user thats trying to go modern.

[tyme]

Because you had it on a HUB chances are the system was configured with the drive being different than it is now, connected straight to the port.

 

I.E., during install it was /dev/sdb, now it's /dev/sda - this will cause several problems getting the system booted. It's expecting the filesystem to be on /dev/sdb, it tries to mount it, and when that fails you get the error message you see. There is a process by which you could correct this, but it requires messing with a few configuration files and could be frustrating to a new user (would require booting a livecd and mounting the partitions to edit the files). It may be easier to do the install with the HD connected directly to the USB port on the system, if that is how you intend to use it.

 

If you'd prefer not to do a reinstall, we can try and step you through the other process. Let us know which you prefer :)

[scarecrow]

Is the HD bus powered, or it has its own power supply?

Bus powered HD's will not work on many laptops (insufficient power supply), unless fed with a special, double USB cable.

[rockets]

Because you had it on a HUB chances are the system was configured with the drive being different than it is now, connected straight to the port.

 

I.E., during install it was /dev/sdb, now it's /dev/sda - this will cause several problems getting the system booted. It's expecting the filesystem to be on /dev/sdb, it tries to mount it, and when that fails you get the error message you see. There is a process by which you could correct this, but it requires messing with a few configuration files and could be frustrating to a new user (would require booting a livecd and mounting the partitions to edit the files). It may be easier to do the install with the HD connected directly to the USB port on the system, if that is how you intend to use it.

 

If you'd prefer not to do a reinstall, we can try and step you through the other process. Let us know which you prefer :)

 

 

Thanks for the reply--Please step me thru the config. files. I want to use the drive as a portable full featured distro. I found udev but do not know how to modify to assign permanent dev names. My livecd is actually a puppy distro on a flash drive so I can quickly go to any part of mdk and modify it. Sorry for the delayed response, but I did not get email notify of your post. Will fix email now.

[rockets]

Is the HD bus powered, or it has its own power supply?

Bus powered HD's will not work on many laptops (insufficient power supply), unless fed with a special, double USB cable.

 

HD has own powered enclosure. My problem is mdk don't use udev to permantly assign dev names as does othe distros.