[SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

williamkray · 2010-11-07 04:30:58

I installed arch to a 4gb usb flash drive and it works great. Keeping it bare bones for now without a GUI to force myself to learn more about linux and how it works. However, I would like to mount and access the internal hard drives of the "host" computer that i'm booting the usb on, and I can't seem to find them.

ls /dev/disk/by-anything only shows the usb device that arch is installed to and udev and something else I can't remember right now. Same results when I enter df -h.

I know that this is possible somehow, because I also have a live usb of Ubuntu 10.10 on another usb stick that can access the internal disks. However, my ubuntu stick also has a gui, Hal, etc and is a persistent live-disk-to-usb rather than an actual usb stick installation. Does that affect things?

I apologize if this is already covered somewhere. I am a super n00b with arch and I did my best to search both google and the forums.

Thank you in advance, and I look forward to being a part of the arch community!

Last edited by williamkray (2010-11-07 22:53:18)

shulamy · 2010-11-07 18:55:41

maybe the disk is'nt automounted

and you have to mount it manualy?

ezik

williamkray · 2010-11-07 19:00:14

well that's the thing, i can't find the disks listed anywhere in the system at all, so i don't have any way to mount them. are there some hooks that i need to add to rc.conf or something? i feel like i'm missing something.

shulamy · 2010-11-07 19:26:31

do'nt you know what's on the disk?

i would try to mount it starting with /dev/hda1.

you can start the installation to the disk,

until the partitioning stage, to see the disk.

ezik

skunktrader · 2010-11-07 19:28:52

Perhaps the bios disables the internal disk drive when you boot from USB. Look through the kernel log to see whether the drives are detected during boot.

phaedrus · 2010-11-07 19:46:03

If you do a "cat /proc/partitions" you can see what partitions the kernel is aware of at any time... if your drive is connected and not throwing a tantrum, it should appear in that list. If it's not showing up in the list, check the cables/connections, if it still doesn't show up... panic

williamkray · 2010-11-07 21:57:17

skunktrader wrote:

Perhaps the bios disables the internal disk drive when you boot from USB. Look through the kernel log to see whether the drives are detected during boot.

i've looked through the kernel log, and realize that i've never looked at one before and don't really know what i'm looking for. if i haven't lost your interest yet, here's a pastebin of a recent boot... the PNY is the usb stick that arch is installed to. http://pastebin.com/D7nzkaaq

phaedrus wrote:

If you do a "cat /proc/partitions" you can see what partitions the kernel is aware of at any time... if your drive is connected and not throwing a tantrum, it should appear in that list. If it's not showing up in the list, check the cables/connections, if it still doesn't show up... panic

i will do this next. i'm pretty sure that the cables are connected properly, seeing that i can boot the computers in question without the usb stick and have full access to available drives.

thank you everyone for all your responses so far!

EDIT: alright, i looked at /proc/partitions and this is what it says:

major minor #blocks name
8 0 3915776 sda
8 1 3915744 sda1
3 0 39070080 hda
3 1 4883728 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 473886 hda5
3 6 33350877 hda6

so it looks like my internal drive is recognized somehow. my new question would be, what exactly is the difference between /proc/partitions and /dev/disk/ ?? and how do i find out more identifying/location information about hda to mount it into an accessible location in my file system?

Last edited by williamkray (2010-11-07 22:13:29)

williamkray · 2010-11-07 22:52:40

alright, everyone. thanks for all your help, i think what i've learned from this is that i'm just retarded. before i was just looking in /dev/disk/by-uuid and similar methods, but going back to what shulamy said, looking in /dev/ i see hda and the subsequent partitions. they're right there in plain sight.

now all i have to do is get more comfortable with the mount commands and i'll be golden. thank you all for bearing with me!!!

phaedrus · 2010-11-07 23:59:38

the /dev subdirectory is where udev manages device access... each node under /dev refers to a device, such as a hard drive, floppy, or console/tty

the /proc subdirectory is a way to query/update processes in real time... tho, i wouldn't recommend updating much information about the kernel can be viewed in here, as well as info for running processes

the difference here is that /dev/disk<> or /dev/sda1 refer to devices as managed by udev, whereas /proc lists information about processes and the kernel which includes partition info. both hold info that will allow you to identify what is connected, but i would use /proc/partitions here as it has less info, and might be less confusing, than looking under /dev.

hopefully this hasn't just made things more confusing

as for mounting, 'man mount' will be your friend the short version being: mount -t filesystemtype /dev/path /mount/path

is the drive from a windows install? ntfs? maybe you don't have ntfs support installed currently - 'cat /proc/filesystems' will list what's supported

williamkray · 2010-11-08 01:10:49

Thats the kind of stuff I wanted to learn by using arch, thank you! The existing harddrives are ext4 currently, but is there a way to find out what the filesystem is before I try and mount it? Or is there a package I need to install to support ntfs and fat? I'm guessing I don't have support for those filesystems since my install is still pretty fresh.

And when I use the mount -t flag, if I list the WRONG fipesystem type, what could happen? If I tried to mount ext3 as ext4 for example? And would that be less disasterous or the same as trying to mount an ntfs partition as ext4?

shulamy · 2010-11-08 17:45:55

i think you just get an error about wrong type.

ezik

Arch Linux

#1 2010-11-07 04:30:58

[SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#2 2010-11-07 18:55:41

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#3 2010-11-07 19:00:14

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#4 2010-11-07 19:26:31

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#5 2010-11-07 19:28:52

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#6 2010-11-07 19:46:03

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#7 2010-11-07 21:57:17

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#8 2010-11-07 22:52:40

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#9 2010-11-07 23:59:38

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#10 2010-11-08 01:10:49

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

#11 2010-11-08 17:45:55

Re: [SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

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