Re: [gentoo-user] Booting Gentoo from USB stick

[Maciej Grela <maciej.grela@gmail.com>]

2010/9/10 Jake Moe <jakesaddress@gmail.com>:
>  Hello all,
>
> I've been thinking about creating a Gentoo USB stick for install and rescue
> purposes (and, of course, just to see if I could).  I've mostly followed the
> Gentoo handbook (I used a single 4GB partition for the whole system, and no
> swap).  I've used genkernel for the kernel (so I can have a multi-system
> capable kernel).  I've gotten GRUB installed and working.  My problem comes
> in after what I believe is the init process:
>
>
> Gentoo Linux; http://www.gentoo.org
>  Copyright 1999-2009 Gentoo Foundation; Distributed under the GPLv2
>
> Press I to enter interactive boot mode
>
>  * Mounting proc at /proc ...                                             [
> ok ]
>  * Mounting sysfs at /sys ...                                             [
> ok ]
>  * Mounting /dev ...                                                      [
> ok ]
>  * Starting udevd ...                                                     [
> ok ]
>  * Populating /dev with existing devices through uevents ...              [
> ok ]
>  * Waiting for uevents to be processed ...                                [
> ok ]
>  * Mounting devpts at /dev/pts ...                                        [
> ok ]
>  * Checking root filesystem ...
> fsck.ext2: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda1
> /dev/sda1:
> The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
> filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
> filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
> is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
>    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
>
>  * Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(                                        [
> !! ]
> Give root password for maintenance
> (or type Control-D to continue):
>
>
> If I give the root password, I can find no /dev/sda1.  However, mount shows
> /dev/sda1 on /, and there *is* a /sys/block/sda folders, with a sda1 folder
> in that as well.  It's almost like it had /dev/sda1, but then lost it
> somehow.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?  Any help would be
> appreciated.
>

Have you seen http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page ? It's based on
Gentoo, you could check what they did to boot from a usb stick.

Br,
Maciej Grela