9.10 refuses to boot if USB external SATA attached

[kodb]

Hi everyone and thanks in advance.
I've been searching for a cure but it seems most people are experiencing the opposite problem
I have a 9.10 fully updated install on an old P4 HP desktop that otherwise runs flawlessly. We moved it to the bedroom to use as a media center and when I plug in a Thermolake toaster with a Hitachi 750G SATA drive it is recoginized and available no problem. I can read/write no problem. It works via nfs4 no problem. The issue is if I reboot while the drive is attached it the machine refuses to reboot and hangs on the initial hardware screen not even showing a grub screen. This has always been a native ubuntu machine with no dual boot or any weird grub2 issues previously. Interestingly, I am getting the exact same issue with another HP desktop (Celeron machine) with 9.10 Server 32bit that I' using as a home server. This is obviously a bigger problem because if the server updates or requires a reboot for any reason I can't just leave the drive attached. This drive houses our movie and music collection.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks\
Bob

[Friend-Atish]

Hi everyone and thanks in advance.
I've been searching for a cure but it seems most people are experiencing the opposite problem
I have a 9.10 fully updated install on an old P4 HP desktop that otherwise runs flawlessly. We moved it to the bedroom to use as a media center and when I plug in a Thermolake toaster with a Hitachi 750G SATA drive it is recoginized and available no problem. I can read/write no problem. It works via nfs4 no problem. The issue is if I reboot while the drive is attached it the machine refuses to reboot and hangs on the initial hardware screen not even showing a grub screen. This has always been a native ubuntu machine with no dual boot or any weird grub2 issues previously. Interestingly, I am getting the exact same issue with another HP desktop (Celeron machine) with 9.10 Server 32bit that I' using as a home server. This is obviously a bigger problem because if the server updates or requires a reboot for any reason I can't just leave the drive attached. This drive houses our movie and music collection.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks\
Bob


Hi, ):P
Most probably when you are booting your desktop with "USB external SATA", it is detecting the external drive as the first HDD.
Pls. check it from the bios settings.
If it is, then that is your problem. In that case Ubuntu is not getting the bootable data from your external HDD.

Pls. let us know, is my assumption true or false..........

[kodb]

Atish,
Thanks for the response!
No, the bios is actually set up to boot the specific original ide internal hdd; there is no mention of usb whatsoever; I specifically removed that as a boot option for security purposes. The only active boot options are the hdd, pci boot for network boot. The external drive is a standard sata plugged into a Thermaltake toaster via usb.
Still perplexed by the whole thing; any other thoughts?

Bob

[tonyric]

Is fstab set up to boot from UUID's or hard coded devices such as /dev/sda*? If it is booting with hard coded devices this is your problem. Sometimes drives, if they were not connected during install can cause device switching such as sda on the original install becoming sdb and the USB (or other device) becoming sda. This happens to me on my thinkpad if I install without the second drive in the media bay.

[dabl]

Is it possible that the external drive has the boot flag set on the first partition? Some BIOS's can't get past that when they see it (a Windows thing).

[Friend-Atish]

Is fstab set up to boot from UUID's or hard coded devices such as /dev/sda*? If it is booting with hard coded devices this is your problem. Sometimes drives, if they were not connected during install can cause device switching such as sda on the original install becoming sdb and the USB (or other device) becoming sda. This happens to me on my thinkpad if I install without the second drive in the media bay.

Thanks tonyric,
You have told exactly what I tried to mean.

Dear kodb,
Most of the time the external drives becomes the first Hard Drive (even pendrives). And system seeks some bootable data from the first Hard Drive.
So, if your External drive is detecting as the first Hard Drive, the system is not getting some data and it stops booting.
So please check your bios setting (when external drive is attached).

[kodb]

Thanks guys- I'm on the road today but will be home tomorrow and will check the fstab entries to see how they are set up.
If this is the described fstab problem is there a work around or cure that I can implement either by editing the fstab or by changing something on the external hard drive?
Appreciate all the replies and help as this has been vexing.
Bob

[wilee-nilee]

Is it possible that the external drive has the boot flag set on the first partition? Some BIOS's can't get past that when they see it (a Windows thing).

Most likely suspect.

[kodb]

Can someone point me to a resource to change the boot status of the external drive?
Thanks all
Bob

[wilee-nilee]

Can someone point me to a resource to change the boot status of the external drive?
Thanks all
Bob

You can look at it with gparted and right click on the partition to remove the boot flag.

[oldfred]

Boot flag does not control booting except when windows is the boot loader in the MBR. Some BIOS will not let a system boot at all unless there is a boot flag on a primary partition. Grub does not use a boot flag.

You could also install grub to the external so which ever drive is plugged in boots to the same partition.

If you want to see what is where plug in the external and this will document your system.

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum member meierfra
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste results.txt, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.