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I recently installed Ubuntu Server 14.04 onto a 32GB pen drive. This is used as the main drive for an Intel NUC.

-System-

Intel Nuc (i3 D34010WYK) - Headless

Sandisk USB3 micro pen drive (used instead of internal Msata HD)

WD 3TB USB external Drive

Wifi to ethernet bridge (for now)


Install was no problem, initially it ran great.

I am having a unique problem (I can't find similar scenarios through my searches). I have a 3TB WD external drive also plugged in via USB. I have FSTAB set up using UUID to mount but when ubuntu boots, it looks as though it is trying to boot from the 3TB drive to boot and then failing.

If I try to boot without the 3TB drive plugged in it fails, as the drive could not be detected when fstab goes to mount it.

My initial thought was GRUB, but I'm not sure what the various settings in are. I can see HD1 in a comma separated page that has things about floppy disks (pressed E for "edit commands") and thought maybe I need to take that out and make it USBXXX. I'm a bit worried about this as I have never had good luck with GRUB.

To add a bit more weirdness, after this has happened, the nuc will not boot to the USB pen drive. It instead goes to the network boot and the uefi doesn't show it as a boot option. If I remove and plug back in, it works. I really don't want to get an MSATA drive as they are expensive. The NUC was cheap, is small, and low energy.

Any help would be awesome, I'm very new to linux, only played with a few VM's and a raspberry pi as a file server (samba).

2 Answers 2

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I dont really have a lot of knowledge with NUC. But maybe this will work. Take the usb hard drive and unplug it. Leave the usb stick in. Turn on the NAC and then wait like 1 second then plug back in the hard drive. It sounds crazy but it might work. If you can plug it in the second it boots it could work. If your NAC displays something like the Intel logo before it boots try to plug it in right after that.

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  • my idea is unlikely to work, but it is worth trying. Jul 29, 2015 at 1:02
  • Thanks, I'm going to try and use a usb 2.0 pen drive. As a reddit user have pointed me to a post where users had many problems getting the bios to work. I'm not 100% it is related, but I'll try anything. Doing as you say will at least let me know if its the nuc, grub or Ubuntu is during boot. Still need to find a more permanent solution. Thanks
    – Conor
    Jul 29, 2015 at 5:42
  • I don't think its GRUB. As long as you have installed the os on the USB stick correctly, its proably not GRUB. GRUB is responsible for starting the Operating System and the BIOS is responsible for booting from the right device. Messing around in GRUB might not be the best solution. I think the problem is that you are trying to boot from USB when there is two USB devices plugged in. I will try my hardest help solve this problem Jul 29, 2015 at 6:28
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I read something about drives not being detected. They said you need to switch your sata cable on your motherboard to a different spot. I know that you don't have a sata cable.So maybe try to move your hard drive in a different spot. Like if you plugged the hard drive in the front move it to the back. Switch it around.Try to have the hardrive in the back and the usb pen drive in the front. Or vise - versa

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