[Bradford] New laptop, cannot mount partitions

Devo Too mike_g at devotoo.org.uk
Sun Mar 10 21:39:16 UTC 2019 

Hi Folks,

Hopefully, nearly there. The final stage is to get the boot loader and 
scripts into the right place. Some minor reconfiguring to do and as 
that's likely to break something it's probably as well to start again.

A question remains for anybody familliar with such things:

The recommended maximum size for the boot/efi/vfat partition is 550MB or 
thereabouts. But that's in case of dual booting and leaving space for 
additional OSs. The very thought of 'Doze is anathema so what would be a 
more reasonable maximum just in case of, for instance, wanting another 
Tux OS in the future?

Cheers,

Mike

On 10/03/2019 17:33, Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
> Still not right! I've disabled "UEFI" setting in the bios interface, or 
> it only allows network boot, choices being IPv4 or IPv6.
> 
> That leaves me (in priortiy order I've set:
> 
> 1. [UEFI: ADATA USB Flash Drive 0.00, Partition 1]
> 2. ['Doze Boot Manager (P4: ADATA SU650)]
> 
> Which in turn raises 2 questions:
> 
> 1. Isn't an ADATA SU650 an ssd drive (solid state)? I specifically asked 
> them not to use ssd and paid the extra!
> 2. How do I get a UEFI Tux boot loader in there?
> 
> I tested to see if the 'Doze had been overwritten to load Tux and got a 
> message saying my hdd needed sorting out!
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Mike
> 
> On 10/03/2019 16:24, Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
>> Sorry again. Typo - I'd put a space between gen and fstab. It's back 
>> on track.
>>
>> On 10/03/2019 16:21, Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
>>> Hoping I won't have to use it again. Thank you Steve, seems mkfs.ext4 
>>> did the trick and I've loaded the base arch distro. But trying to 
>>> create fstab with genfstab and the system is asking me if I want to 
>>> change gen to (I think, the console font is absolutely tiny, to be 
>>> fixed later) 'grn'[nyae] and I haven't the first idea what the hell 
>>> it is on about. Should I say yes or no?
>>>
>>> On 10/03/2019 15:53, Duncan Hughes wrote:
>>>> /dev/loop0 will come back next time you boot from the iso
>>>>
>>>>> On 10 Mar 2019, at 15:52, Devo Too via Bradford 
>>>>> <bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks Duncan, but I've been through that section of the 
>>>>> destructions using both fdisk and parted at least a couple of times 
>>>>> each. fdisk is now showing sda and its three partitions as I set 
>>>>> them up including sda1 as EFI System, the other two as Linux 
>>>>> filesystem. That's with fdisk -l. /dev/loop0 has gone, so I just 
>>>>> hope it wasn't required.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now checking to see that everything has been written, as mount 
>>>>> command reports.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 10/03/2019 15:39, Duncan Hughes via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Mike
>>>>>> I’ve just looked through the Arch installation and you do have to 
>>>>>> create your own partitions and filesystems.  Look for the section 
>>>>>> in the installation docs that starts with “Format the partitions”.
>>>>>> You’ll need to pass the full path of sda to fdisk, i.e.  fdisk 
>>>>>> /dev/sda
>>>>>> Your loop0 device is a file from the boot iso that’s been mounted 
>>>>>> as a file system.
>>>>>> Anything in /dev is not a file, it’s the handle to a device.
>>>>>> HTH
>>>>>> Duncan.
>>>>>>> On 10 Mar 2019, at 15:10, Devo Too via Bradford 
>>>>>>> <bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Nothing to lose at all. So ran the commands only to realise I 
>>>>>>> should have done something else first.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> fdisk -l sda
>>>>>>> fdisk: cannot open sda: no such file or directory.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> blkid
>>>>>>> /dev/sda1 {unchanged}
>>>>>>> /dev/sda2 UUID-"{string}"
>>>>>>> /dev/sda3 UUID-"{string}"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> EUREKA!
>>>>>>> Reading the two lines below in the blkid output, which I'd 
>>>>>>> ignored as part of the USD drive report (/dev/sdb1) the second 
>>>>>>> line is /dev/loop0, viz:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> /dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> - is it now a case of rewrite the stick with another type and try 
>>>>>>> again? If so, instructions please? I just followed the "how to".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Mike
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 10/03/2019 14:44, Steve Wilson via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>> assuming there's no data to be lost on sda2/sda3 I'd be tempted 
>>>>>>>> to create the file system on them and try to mount.
>>>>>>>> # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
>>>>>>>> # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
>>>>>>>> # mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
>>>>>>>> # mkdir /mnt/home
>>>>>>>> # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home
>>>>>>>> Steve.
>>>>>>>> On 10/03/2019 11:31, Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>>> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide is the 
>>>>>>>>> "head" document with various links off it to help find other 
>>>>>>>>> wiki pages and materials. I've copied this 631Mb .iso 
>>>>>>>>> archlinux-2019.03.01-x86_64.iso correctly onto a USB stick by 
>>>>>>>>> CL having checked the signature.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I've been using both parted and fdisk to try to generate the 
>>>>>>>>> required file systems. But nothing comes of them when I attempt 
>>>>>>>>> to mount them. mkfs looks interesting, maybe worth trying to 
>>>>>>>>> set the partitions manually? But as nothing else is getting 
>>>>>>>>> through I'm seriously suspecting something is blocked.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> No swap partition as I'd allowed sufficient space within the / 
>>>>>>>>> partition for a 4GB swap file.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The only thing on the laptop is the few 'Doze10  remnants the 
>>>>>>>>> assemblers used to test it prior to despatch. I thought they'd 
>>>>>>>>> have been overwritten but it seems nothing is being permanently 
>>>>>>>>> written.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks for your input so far. Very much appreciated.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Mike
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On 10/03/2019 00:43, Steve Wilson via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> It doesn't look like there's a filesystem configured on there, 
>>>>>>>>>> have you missed/overlooked any mkfs commands?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> If there's a filesystem/swap configured there should be a 
>>>>>>>>>> FILE= output to blkid.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Do you have a link to the instructions you've been following? 
>>>>>>>>>> Also was there anything on the disk before which you're trying 
>>>>>>>>>> to keep?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Steve.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On 10/03/2019 00:16, Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> The responses are on the laptop and I'm having to type this 
>>>>>>>>>>> on the PC as haven't been able to get into the laptop hdd. 
>>>>>>>>>>> Nothing gets written onto it sofar as I can tell. I have to 
>>>>>>>>>>> switch the keyboard layout from US to UK each time I switch 
>>>>>>>>>>> it on.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> # blkid
>>>>>>>>>>> /dev/sda1 Label=System, UUID= {string}, vfat and PARTUUID= 
>>>>>>>>>>> {string}
>>>>>>>>>>> /dev/sda2 PARTUUID= {string}
>>>>>>>>>>> /dev/sda3 PARTUUID= {string}
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> On 09/03/2019 23:37, Steve Wilson via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>> What's the output of blkid show?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> This should allow you to identify the actual file system 
>>>>>>>>>>>> used on the partition, it might be a case of making sure the 
>>>>>>>>>>>> filesystem tools/progs package is installed for the specific 
>>>>>>>>>>>> file system.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I've not tried arch so I don't the the OS specific details, 
>>>>>>>>>>>> maybe it's time I had a play with it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Steve.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> On 09/03/2019 23:06, Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> On 09/03/2019 19:49, Darren Drapkin wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Saturday 09 Mar 2019 17:19:38 Devo Too via Bradford wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi Folks,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Shiny new laptop received yesterday. Followed the Arch 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Wiki to set up
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> from a .iso on a memory stick and all looked well until - 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> immediately
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> after partitioning the hard drive, trying the mount command.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> For both sda2 (root partition set as Linux root (x86-64), 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> using mount
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> /dev/sda2 /mnt) and sda3 (home partition set as Linux 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> filesystem, using
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home having set up /mnt/home 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> directory).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sda1 is an EFI System partition and mounted OK.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> At the mount command, both partitions, response is:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> /mnt: wrong fs type,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> This suggests to me that you have to specify the type of 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> filling system
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> explicitly, for some reason #mount /dev/sda2 /  is not 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> enough. Possibly you
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> will need to make sure you are mounting the root partition 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> on the right place
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and you may need a# -t option
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Done that - tried both as 'Linux filesystem', which all the 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> tutorials sanction, then root as 'Linux root (x86-64)' with 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> the same response each time.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> bad option,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> bad superblock on /dev/sda2, missing
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bad superblock suggests that you may have that rare thing 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> on a modern hard
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> drive, an actual defective sector. You may need to run 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fsck on it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> As it occurs on two partitions, each occupying separate 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> sets of sectors, it would surely indicate at least two bad 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> sectors? But thanks, I'll try fsck too.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> codepage or helper program, or other error
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Google searches haven't thrown any light on the topic so 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> far although it
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> is a commonly reported problem.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> One of several more G searches suggests the possibility of 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> a corrupted kernel in the download. That .iso has been in 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> the Arch Downloads since 1st March and I used the Bytemark 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> repository, which I'd trust more than most, as source. It's 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> none too convincing. Besides, most of the searches have 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> thrown up reports from over a year ago and there probably 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> was a kernel corruption in the December 2017 release most 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> mention.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Do any of you have ideas?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Could it be a hard drive problem? I've tried 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> unsuccessfully to use both
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> parted and fsdisk to do the partitioning. It's a 960GB 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> hdd so I suspect
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> it should have 4KB sectors rather than 512 bytes, 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> although the system
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> reports otherwise.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> All pointers welcome.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> TIA.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mike
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>>> Bradford mailing list
>>>>>>> Bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk
>>>>>>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/bradford
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Bradford mailing list
>>>>> Bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk
>>>>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/bradford
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

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