Re: no boot ... solved

[robert]

Ok. Working towards a solution.

set root=(hd1,5) ... works fine with the thumbdrive

set root=(hd0,5) ... works fine with the onboard grub at the command-line

obviously, the usb is changing the partition prefix

but why is update-grub not generating a correct prefix???

seems that clearly the solution is as suggested by Jordan, that I use UUID ...

so, here-->http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2009/12/msg01537.html

I removed set root=...
and added:
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fb796a23-e59e-4e15-ba92-15f0cd087714
regenerated grub.cfg ...
everything goes well now. thanks for the lead, Jordan.

Robert