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Translations: [:DebianEeePCFrench/HowTo/Install:French] [:DebianEeePCGerman/HowTo/Install:German]

Introduction

The limited storage capability of the eeepc does not lend itself to keep multiple os versions on the internal flash drive. A SD or SDHC card (which can stay forever in the built in card reader) or and usb stick can be a very convenient way to install another system and extended storage. This wiki page gives you a recipee how to do that. Use at your own risk.

Drawbacks

A system on an external flash medium can be convenient and very usable. There are some drawbacks, of course.

Installation overview

Installing on external flash drives

  1. Put the stick with the installer in the USB port on the left side.
  2. Press <esc> while booting and select the stick to boot from.

  3. Now put the SD or SDHC card into the built in reader. If you want to install to a usb stick put that one in the second usb port on the right side, the one that is closer to the display.
  4. Start installation until partitioning. Select manual partitioning.
  5. Spot the device you want to install to: The internal card reader is easy to find, the stick might show a brand label, size or something you can tell which stick is which. If you have no clue, then assume the installer is on /dev/sdb1 and the target stick on /dev/sdc1 (if you did put it in the USB ports I told you to).
  6. Write the device down (It's very likely to be /dev/sdc1 with the current installer).
  7. On a pristine stick or card you will see one fat partition, select and delete it.
  8. Now you will see free space. Select that, and create a new primary partition. Accept the default size to use the whole medium.
  9. Filesystem default ext3 is fine. Select mount option noatime
  10. I would set a volume label like eeeSDcard or eeeStick.
  11. Set the bootable flag
  12. Select 'Done setting up partition' and 'Finish partitioning and write changes to disk'.
  13. The installer thinks you should have a swap partition, but you can savely continue without. (There will be more warnings about missing swap).
  14. Now let the installer do it´s thing until it wants to write the GRUB bootloader. Stop now. Do *not* install the GRUB bootloader in the mbr.
  15. To install the bootloader on your external media you have to give the name of the device like the installer sees it during installation. So install it to the device (without partition number) you wrote down in the partitioner. Probably it will be /dev/sdc (*NOT* /dev/sdc1). You can double check this by switching to console 2 (press <ctr> + <alt> + <F2> and then <ret>) and use the mount command. It's the device where /target is mounted (without partition number).

    • You install GRUB on a device like /dev/sdc but this will show up as /dev/sdb when the system gets booted. Don't get confused, it *is* confusing. ;-)

  16. Continue until the installer wants to reboot, but don't do that yet. We must correct faulty disk and device names in /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab first. You can do that inside the installer now, or you can decide to let the installer finish and mount the media somewhere else to fix things there before rebooting the eeepc. Next steps show how to do it from the installer.
  17. Switch to vt2 (<ctr> + <alt> + <F2>) 1.The files show up mounted under /target. Make a security copy, something like

{{ cp -a /target/boot/grub/menu.lst /target/boot/grub/menu.lst.INSTALLER.back cp -a /target/etc/fstab /target/etc/fstab.INSTALLER.back }} {{ 1. Edit /etc/fstab now. }}

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Booting external media

Common case

Booting from SDHC card