Arch Linux

Wingdom

Member

Registered: 2010-12-05

Posts: 3

Installation not seeing /dev/sda3

I am trying to install on my Macbook Pro from a USB drive. I used gparted to format a second partition to ext4 to put Arch Linux on, and called it Arch, and it is located at dev/sda3, where EFI is at sda1, and OSX is at sda2. I get to the step "Manually Configure block devices, filesystems and mount points", pick to do it by /dev and my only options are /dev/sda and dev/sdb. Am I correct in guessing /dev/sda is the whole hard drive and /dev/sdb is the whole flash drive? How can I get Arch Linux to recognize the partitions on /dev/sda?

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: Installation not seeing /dev/sda3

Yes you are right. /dev/sda means the whole drive.

You have to select either sda or sdb to install Arch on (in your case you should select sda, as sdb is your Live USB)

Once you select sda, it will show you all your partitions only on sda..Then go on from there.

If you haven't already found it or are not yet referring to it, our Beginner's Guide is an excellent source to help with installation

oh and welcome to the forums.

As a side note, try picking "by uuid", as this will save you from hassles when drive letters change especially if you plan to install certain partitions on usb devices

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Wingdom

Member

Registered: 2010-12-05

Posts: 3

Re: Installation not seeing /dev/sda3

Its not showing any extra partitions when I pick /dev/sda. It just asks what file system /dev/sda is. When I pick manually partition drives, it shows /dev/sda at 1GB and /dev/sdb at 0GB

Wingdom

Member

Registered: 2010-12-05

Posts: 3

Re: Installation not seeing /dev/sda3

Ok, I yanked the drive from the Macbook and put in my desktop and installed it that way. Everyting went fine. When I put it back into the Macbook to test it out there, it said "Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sda3" then "Root device /dev/sda3 does not exist" and it puts me into the recovery console. Grub is installed on /dev/sda3, and when I pick the partition from rEFIt, grub boots up just fine, then when Arch starts to boot, I get this.