Installing to external storage devices

GoboLinux 016 comes with two installation modes: UEFI and BIOS-compatibility mode. Depending on how your computer firmware is configured you may need to follow one or another recipe below.

BIOS-compatibility mode

Ensure that your external disk has been configured with a MSDOS partition table. You need to have at least one Linux partition (e.g., ext4), with the BOOT flag set.

You can then proceed with the installation of GoboLinux by selecting that Linux partition as install target and by enabling the installation of the bootloader on the master boot record (MBR) of that disk.

UEFI mode

Ensure that your external disk has been configured with a GPT partition table. You need to have at least one Linux partition (e.g., ext4) and a FAT (32/16/12) partition which is where the UEFI application embedding the GRUB bootloader will be stored. The FAT partition needs to have both the ESP and BOOT flags set. If you are using GParted, that FAT partition will be automatically formatted by the tool. If you are not, then make sure to invoke mkfs.msdos to format it yourself.

Once the partitioning is arranged, you can proceed with the installation of Gobo by selecting the Linux partition as system install target and by selecting the FAT partition (also called EFI System Partition) as bootloader install target.

Troubleshooting

Unable to mount root fs

Both USB-Storage and UAS (USB-Attached-SCSI) drivers are built into the kernel. However, at times the kernel may not have time to discover the partitions on your external disk and may fail to mount the root filesystem. This particular problem can be fixed by adding the rootwait parameter to the kernel command line.

For BIOS-compatibility mode:

  1. Mount your system partition using the LiveCD under /Mount/GoboLinux
  2. Edit the file at /Mount/GoboLinux/System/Kernel/Boot/grub/grub.cfg. Look for the lines starting with linux /System/Kernel/Boot/kernel-4.8.2-Gobo and append the word rootwait to the very end of those lines
  3. Unmount the partition under /Mount/GoboLinux and reboot.

For UEFI mode:

  1. Mount your boot partition (the one with a FAT filesystem) using the LiveCD under /Mount/GoboLinux
  2. Edit the file at /Mount/GoboLinux/EFI/BOOT/grub-efi.cfg. Look for the lines starting with linux /System/Kernel/Boot/kernel-4.8.2-Gobo and append the word rootwait to the very end of those lines
  3. Regenerate the UEFI application. This is a large command, so it’s better to just copy+paste it.
cd /Mount/GoboLinux/EFI/BOOT
grub-mkstandalone-efi -d /lib/grub/x86_64-efi -O x86_64-efi --modules="part_gpt part_msdos iso9660 all_video efi_gop efi_uga video_cirrus gfxterm gettext font" --fonts="unicode" --themes="" -o BOOTx64.EFI --compress=gz "boot/grub/grub.cfg=grub-efi.cfg"

Afterwards, unmount the partition under /Mount/GoboLinux and reboot.