[Debian-eeepc-devel] installing GRUB to SD card fails

[Robert Epprecht]

Glenn <gsaberton at foomagic.org> writes:

> Robert Epprecht wrote:
>> I have tried to install to an SD card. When the installer wants to write
>> GRUB to /dev/sdb it fails. Shouldn't this be possible?

> Yep, should be possible, I have done it several times myself. Can you
> see what the exact error message is on vt4?

No, the eee is already off. But I think it was a very stupid user error:
I managed to put a ext3 fs on the type b (b  W95 FAT32) partition on the
SD card ;-)


ok, I made a second try:
I deleted the partition (in the partitioner of the installer) and recreated
it. BTW: I selected noatime as mount option.
This time there was no error during the installation of GRUB. (/dev/hdb)

But I still can not boot from the SD card:
I start the eee, press esc and select the cardreader to boot from.
The grub menu shows up, then on booting I get error 15.

Booting 'Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.22-3-686 Default'
root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 ro quiet
Error 15: File not found

I get Error 15 for all the other menu items (Xandros, disc scan, factory reset)
If I mount the card (on another machine) the link to the kernel and initrd
are there.

What is wrong here?


Maybe fdisk (or whatever the installer uses) cannot deal with SDHC cards?
fdisk -l looks a bit strange (heads,sectors,cylinders)

This was after the first installation:
  muz:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
  
  Disk /dev/sdb: 8168 MB, 8168931328 bytes
  39 heads, 5 sectors/track, 81820 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 195 * 512 = 99840 bytes
  
     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/sdb1              43       81821     7973376    b  W95 FAT32

This is after deleting and recreating the partition during install:
  muz:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
  
  Disk /dev/sdb: 8168 MB, 8168931328 bytes
  255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 993 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
  
     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/sdb1               1         993     7976241   83  Linux

What can I try next?


Sorry, I know that this is a bit OT here. But then using the SD slot
is very common on the eee, and installing to a SDHC card could very well
go into another FAQ.

Thanks a lot for your help and patience,
Robert