From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6FE6B1382C5 for ; Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:16:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id B64B3E0B63; Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:16:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ciao.gmane.io (ciao.gmane.io [116.202.254.214]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 671BFE0B29 for ; Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:16:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.io with local (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1krvZy-00066W-7R for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:16:50 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org From: Grant Edwards Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: Is a USB-key-to-hard-drive-tap-dance-boot possible? Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:16:46 -0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (Linux) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Auto-Response-Suppress: DR, RN, NRN, OOF, AutoReply X-Archives-Salt: 416fcbb3-1aea-4afc-8b57-0bccf3844fdf X-Archives-Hash: 5aed9d87d1d7759b0649fa2787a20094 On 2020-12-23, Walter Dnes wrote: > Situation; I have a Dell XPS8940 with that abomination known as > UEFI, and no "legacy boot". UEFI claims there are no bootable > partitions on the hard drive (/dev/sda). Yet it will automatically > boot up properly from a USB key (/dev/sdb) with Gentoo minimal > install. Yea, where I work, we've run into similar issues with some Dell machines that IT insisted they procure for us to use in manufacturing as production test stations. There seems to be no way to get them to boot Linux from internal hard-drives, though they're quite happy booting Linux from external USB drives. After wasting days of engineering time, we finally told IT the machines were useless to us. > Question; is it possible to install grub/lilo/syslinux/whatever on > the USB key (/dev/sdb) so that it boots up and hands off control of > the boot process to the hard drive (/dev/sda1)? Does the UEFI BIOS recognize that /dev/sda1 exists, but just isn't bootable? If yes, then it should be possible to install Grub on a USB key and boot a kernel on /dev/sda1. It might be simpler to just put the kernel and initrd on the USB key also. Though boot time might be slightly slower that way, it won't affect performance after that. I think... -- Grant