Installing Linux to USB drive

[Phazer]

Hi Everybody,

I'm a new user of nas4free / freenas (I've used both so far) and I wanted to try your product before I landed on which one I wanted to use.

My current configuration is the following:
Quad core processor
8gbs of ram
4x 2TB HDD
1 8gb USB drive (for OS)

I've done some research on installing Ubuntu and Fedora on a USB drive and I tried it last night.

Both OSs had the same behavior when I tried to boot from it: They display a blank black screen with a blinking line on it.

I know the USB drive is good as it's the same one I've used for nas4free and freenas and they both worked fine. I've formatted with all zeros each time I've loaded either OS and paritioned it according to the articles I was following was typically fat32. Ubuntu was used with the pendrive linux app and the fedora one was loaded with the fedora live maker program.

Has anybody done this before or know what issue I'm facing? My googling skills were put to the test at 3am last night and I couldn't figure it out.

Thanks for any input and sorry if this is in the wrong section, but it seemed appropriate when I'm writing this.

[bigfoot65]

You might check out this thread.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/291500/i ... hard-drive

[Phazer]

Thanks for the reply Bigfoot65. I believe I saw that post in my search last night. It doesn't go into details on how to do it. Do you suggest I just try to installing the OS from a DVD drive and then point it to my USB as the hard drive?

[bigfoot65]

The 8GB USB drive may not be large enough to hold the OS, plus the LZ for Greyhole. I would recommend you not use the USB drive.

Fedora/Ubuntu along with Amahi is not designed to be run on a USB flash drive. I believe you may have more problems that it's worth. You can partition one of your 2TB drives to use part for the OS and part for the LZ/Greyhole storage.

[Phazer]

The 8GB USB drive may not be large enough to hold the OS, plus the LZ for Greyhole. I would recommend you not use the USB drive.

Fedora/Ubuntu along with Amahi is not designed to be run on a USB flash drive. I believe you may have more problems that it's worth. You can partition one of your 2TB drives to use part for the OS and part for the LZ/Greyhole storage.

That sounds even better! Can you give me details how to do that or point me towards a document?

I was under the impression that the hard drives should be stand alone and then imported and managed by the program for best performance. Is that true or should I make a raid 5 then allocate 200gbs for the OS and it'll add the rest in a pool?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[bigfoot65]

I would not do a RAID setup if you are going to use Greyhole. As for partitioning the drives, you can find lots of guidance on the internet. Might be some in the wiki as well.