Updated my first post, still need help on some questions. Can anyone help?

Looks like there are others with the same problem of not booting from usb if more than one usb device is plugged in.

http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index ... pic=4378.0

http://plugapps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=559

Yeah, looks like it is completely upto the USB hub. I have a mcnally powered USB hub and that seems to always boot from the correct hdd. I never tried changing the port where my hdds are plugged though.

@fullerms
I have been moving along the same series of issues with similar level of expertise at linux as you mate

using the UUID method for mounting seems to work best when mounting multiple hdds. however ensuring correct boot order hasnt worked for me yet. right now if i leave a usb audio dongle attached to the hub, on reboot, the plug goes back to nand. have tried almost all permutations but hasnt worked... would be interesting to see if we find a solution together !

spinning down is another issue. using one flash drive with squeezeplug boot and one usb hdd, i havnt been able to see the drive go down yet... any other way u suggest !

Using the script from website http://hartvig.de/2009/howto-automatica ... in-ubuntu/

Code I used:

# !/bin/sh
# Get new state from diskstats
NEWstate=$(cat /proc/diskstats | grep $1)
echo $NEWstate > NEWstate.txt

# compare md5 sums
md5new=$(md5sum NEWstate.txt | sed 's/ .*//')
md5old=$(md5sum OLDstate.txt | sed 's/ .*//')

# if no changes, power down
if [ "$md5new" = "$md5old" ]; then
sdparm --flexible --command=stop /dev/$1 &>/dev/null
fi

# Write current state to file
echo $NEWstate > OLDstate.txt

------------------End Of Script-------------------------------

crontab entry:

15 * * * * root sh /usr/local/bin/spindown.sh sdb%sdb

Almost there folks. Can any of the experts please help with the remaining few topics? Details in the fist post.

Thanks man. I saw this script but is it working when booting off a usb hdd with multiple partitions and swap using squeezeplug debian?

No it wont work if you are booting off the same disk you want to spin down. I am using a USB thumb drive to boot, and the USB HDD is used only for data.

and u booting ubuntu with tonido or debian aqueezeplug image on the thumbdrive?

Debian Squeezeplug. Can you test with Ubuntu with Tonido and post the results? Will save me the time of redoing everything from scratch. I still need to figure out the boot from specific usb drive issue.