[Fw_Os_Forum] Using Multiple caddied disks to teach students OS installation etc

[dann frazier]

hey Peter,
  My guess is that your Boot Manager entries have recorded the UUID of
the installed-to disk, and when you change disks, that UUID changes
underneath it. UEFI does have something called a "removable media
path". This is used to find a working bootloader on a disk, without a
specific boot entry, in an OS independent way. This is used to e.g.
boot operating system installation media. It's possible your system
will, or could be configured to, fallback to the removable media path
if all previous boot entries fail.

You could try renaming your OS bootloader binary to the removable
media path for your architecture (or creating a wrapper that execs
your bootloader):
  https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Booting_from_removable_media

Other options that might work, but seem way more painful, would be to
force the UUID on every disk to be the same (I forget if this is a
filesystem UUID or a physical property of the disk), or to add a boot
entry for every UUID to every computer (!!)

  -dann

On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 7:53 AM, Peter Gibbins
<Peter.Gibbins at eastkent.ac.uk> wrote:
> I have a unusual problem with UEFI
>
>
>
> I have a lab of 20+ PCs which is used continuously – each student uses a
> numbered “Caddied” hard drive for their installation exercises
>
> In this way we can have several classes doing installation exercises
> consecutively.
>
>
>
> Problem…  If “BIOS” (I know it’s not ) is in UEFI mode the system records
> all the previous installations as if it were a multiple boot system.
>
> Also, as the other installations no longer exist, if you click a previous
> installation in error, the OS is not found…
>
>
>
> Switching to “Legacy Only” mode allows the caddied drives to operate
> normally.
>
>
>
> However,  Is this the only way?  Can /UEFI be configured to accept multiple,
> dismountable drives?
>
>
>
> Any help in setting up a stable environment for this lab would be
> appreciated
>
>
>
> Peter Gibbins
>
> Lecturer In Computing & IT Studies
>
> East Kent College
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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