Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

parnmatt · 2013-07-02 09:15:15

Hi, I've got an old MacBook I'm trying to duel boot Arch with.

The other day I downloaded the last ISO (archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso), and `dd` the ISO onto my memory stick.
Was readable, everything was fine; it mounted, recognised it as a valid disk.

I hadn't got round to installing it yet, and I noticed a new version "major" was out; I have slow internet where I am at the moment, so I thought it would be better and quicker to torrent the latest version and install it, rather then using the old one and updating.

After torrenting, I formatted my stick. and proceeded with [note the Mac specific commands]:

$ diskutil list

Giving:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Machintosh HD           319.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.5 GB    disk1
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 PARNELLM                15.5 GB    disk1s1

I then followed the normal method:

$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
$ sudo dd if=/Users/parnmatt/Downloads/archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=8192

which returned

66816+0 records in
66816+0 records out
547356672 bytes transferred in 202.731898 secs (2699904 bytes/sec)

I normally use a `bs=1m` however the Arch Install Guide suggested `bs=8192`

I then get "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."
Mac can't read it.

The Disk Utility is showing it's size to be: 32.5 MB, with a partition type of: 0xEF.

I did not have this issue the other day.

Now I retorrented it. Tried again, even changing the `bs` option, not that would have an affect, but worth a go.

Still get this error.

Makes no sense to me.

Perhaps something's wrong with the ISO online?

Any thoughts?

EDIT: I'm torrenting the last 'major' version again, seeing if the issue arrises again; if so, it may just be the new network I'm on [however I doubt that's the case].

UPDATE: After using the previous ISO, I can conclude it has to be the current ISO. The previous one created a recognisable disk, whereas the current one doesn't.

I am unsure if this is due to Mac's `dd` (which is BSD's `dd`); or just the ISO.
I think it is the ISO though.

Can anyone else recreate this?
Or try this on a Linux distro, to see if it's BSD's `dd` that maybe failing, and GNU `dd` that works …or if it's the ISO for sure.

Last edited by parnmatt (2013-07-02 09:53:17)

drcouzelis · 2013-07-02 14:33:28

I'm sorry, I don't have much to contribute to your question but I have a few general comments that might help:

parnmatt wrote:

I hadn't got round to installing it yet, and I noticed a new version "major" was out; I have slow internet where I am at the moment, so I thought it would be better and quicker to torrent the latest version and install it, rather then using the old one and updating.

This concept, which makes sense with distributions like Ubuntu, doesn't make sense with Arch Linux. The Arch Linux live environment doesn't contain any packages. Instead, it allows you to setup an Arch Linux environment where you would then download and install the latest packages. In other words, using last month's installation media and this months will get you the exact same installation.

Now I retorrented it. Tried again, even changing the `bs` option, not that would have an affect, but worth a go. Still get this error.

You shouldn't ever need to download it again because md5sum numbers are provided. If the output from "md5sum archlinux*.iso" matches what is on the download page then it is the exact same file. Also, I think bittorrent does an md5sum check automatically.

After using the previous ISO, I can conclude it has to be the current ISO. The previous one created a recognisable disk, whereas the current one doesn't.

I think it makes sense to open an Arch Linux bug report and include a link to this thread. That way, the appropriate people will see the problem, and not just Archtards like me.

Good luck!

parnmatt · 2013-07-02 14:48:05

Thanks for writing, many people seem have seen this, and none replied.

drcouzelis wrote:

This concept, which makes sense with distributions like Ubuntu, doesn't make sense with Arch Linux. The Arch Linux live environment doesn't contain any packages. Instead, it allows you to setup an Arch Linux environment where you would then download and install the latest packages. In other words, using last month's installation media and this months will get you the exact same installation.

I am aware of Arch being a rolling distro; hence the quotes around "major verson".
However I thought it did have the core packages and kernel within it at least …as you should be able to install without internet connection. The Net-install version is for purely online, and therefore is much smaller.
That being said, if it doesn't matter which installation media you use …there would be literally no point in updating the installation media on the site, and a complete waste of time for the person/team who takes responsibility for that — therefore there must be something different.
My thoughts on it at least; happy to accept if I'm wrong.

drcouzelis wrote:

You shouldn't ever need to download it again because md5sum numbers are provided. If the output from "md5sum archlinux*.iso" matches what is on the download page then it is the exact same file. Also, I think bittorrent does an md5sum check automatically.

Yes you are right, torrenting does automatically do the check; I knew that hence why I stated

parnmatt wrote:

not that would have an affect, but worth a go

I believe it's always best to try again to see if the issue can be recreated several ways.

drcouzelis wrote:

I think it makes sense to open an Arch Linux bug report and include a link to this thread. That way, the appropriate people will see the problem, and not just Archtards like me.

I'll take that advise, and hope some fruit comes from this.

Thanks again drcouzelis.

parnmatt · 2013-07-02 14:56:27

Bug report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/35998

HalosGhost · 2013-07-02 14:56:47

parnmatt wrote:

However I thought it did have the core packages and kernel within it at least …as you should be able to install without internet connection. The Net-install version is for purely online, and therefore is much smaller.
That being said, if it doesn't matter which installation media you use …there would be literally no point in updating the installation media on the site, and a complete waste of time for the person/team who takes responsibility for that — therefore there must be something different.
My thoughts on it at least; happy to accept if I'm wrong.

As it turns out, this is a fairly recent change. All install media are now net-install only. While it is possible for you to download a local copy of [core], and thus perform an install without a live internet connection, that is not recommended. Arch's rolling behavior means that an active internet connection is essential for keeping up-to-date. If you do not feel you are likely to often have an active internet connection, then odds are it would be better to use a different, slower-moving, distro.

All the best,

-HG

parnmatt · 2013-07-02 14:58:06

HalosGhost wrote:

As it turns out, this is a fairly recent change. All install media are now net-install only.

Thank you for clearing that up; I was unaware of that.

Cheers

mathew · 2013-07-09 10:11:33

I'm getting the same error on a macbook pro 8,1 with a burnt DVD.

(time passes, I come back an hour later after trashing the DVD)

Possibly this was only an error while running osx, I've realised the ubuntu dvd gives the same error in osx, but I can still boot from it.

I'll try burning an arch dvd again after the ubuntu install finishes.

Last edited by mathew (2013-07-09 13:14:06)

parnmatt · 2013-07-09 11:11:57

mathew wrote:

I'm getting the same error on a macbook pro 8,1

Ok, well I assume you're trying to duel boot …or get it working on your UEFI hardware too.
Please, also refer to your specific MacBook page, found here, I wasn't lucky enough to have one for my old model, so I improvised around the standard MacBook page.

I found that I just switched the previous one …as previously noted, they all require an internet connection, and will download the latest packages ANYWAY …so make little to no difference.

So torrent the June 'version' here.
And follow these instructions to get it on the USB.

I noticed the standard `dd` wasn't recognised. I think it has to be the GPT partition, so I followed the instructions loosely.
I found that some of the commands given didn't work, and not everything was given …so I summarise them here:

Put in USB Stick, it will auto-mount all the partitions to:
```
/Volumes/<USB_PARTITION_NAME>
```
but that's not important as it will change.
Open Disk Utility, select your memory stick.
Make a GTP partition table, with at least one partition ( I chose 2, so I can still move and log files whist installing )
- Select the USB top level media
- Click the partition tab
- Select the number of partitions you want
- "Options…" should now be clickable; click it.
- Ensure the GUID Partition Table is selected.
- Resize the partition sizes until you are happy and name them name the one you going to use ARCH_201306.
- Make sure that the one you're going to put the ArchBoot ISO on is FAT32, which is done by selecting "MS-DOS (FAT)" under Format.
- If you want to use the other partitions (if any) during the installation, I suggest you also make them FAT32.
Mount the ISO by opening it in Finder, it will auto-mount all the partitions to:
```
/Volumes/ARCH_201306
```
Then copy the files over:
```
$ sudo cp -a /Volumes/<ISO_PARTITION_NAME> /Volumes/<NEW_USB_PARTITION_NAME>
```
Be careful here, the <ISO_PARTITION_NAME> is most likely <NEW_USB_PARTITION_NAME>, so remember which one connected first, if you USB connected first, it would be "ARCH_201306", and the ISO would be "ARCH_201306 1".
If you're ever confused, just check:
```
diskutil list
```
The guide used `cp -a` instead of `dd`; I used `cp -a` and confirm it worked, and was readable by Mac's EFI boot, however I don't see why `dd` wouldn't work in the last step; but I haven't checked. It's a little longer.
So assume it would be something like:
- Make the GPT partition.
- You don't need to mount the ISO
- Use the `diskutil` to find out where the USB is, and unmount it, not eject it.
```
$ diskutil list
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk<NUM>
```
  Where <NUM> is the disk number found by the list command previous.
- Now you can `dd` over.
```
$ sudo dd if=/PATH/TO/archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso of=/dev/disk<NUM> bs=8192
```
I'm not sure if it would work, as `dd` would use the same filesystem that the ISO used, which I'm unsure if the Mac EFI boot recognises.
To play it safe, I stuck with the previous method.

I also had a little issue with it recognising my ethernet first of all to actually install, and this seems common in Macs.
The drivers that the MacBooks use should be included anyway, it's just a matter of figuring out the connection point.
It's a little more difficult to get the WiFi working… if you don't have the internet to download what you need to fix it; it can be done after the install if I'm honest.

So stick with Ethernet:

Check if it is working:
```
$ ping -c 3 8.8.8.8
```
This is Google's primary DNS server, if you get a can't find network, read on, if you get packets of information …it's already on.
```
$ lspci -v
```
look for the block with "Ethernet controller", and "Kernel driver in use:", and "Kernel modules:"
```
$ dmesg | grep <MODULE_NAME>
```
, <MODULE_NAME> for me was something like sky2, but I can't remember
You should see: <ETH> link is up 100 Mbps full duplex
<ETH> used to be eth0, the new system it's more specific, mine was enp3s0
Then start the service with:
```
$ systemctl start dhcpcd@<ETH>
```
Check if it is working now:
```
$ ping -c 3 8.8.8.8
```
If it's not …then you need to seek advice from a more knowledgable guy

I hope this helps.

Matt

Last edited by parnmatt (2013-07-09 13:24:25)

parnmatt · 2013-07-09 13:02:06

For those who have not read the filed big report, apparently this is not a bug.
I personally don't understand the explanation given …and still believe that you should be able to `dd` an ISO onto a USB without extra work.

If someone reading this could possibly explain the reason(s) given in the bug report in more laymen terms, that would be beneficial.
Thanks.

mathew · 2013-07-09 13:19:05

parnmatt, thank you for the detailed information.
the effort people make on the arch forums is really impressive,
and one of the big reasons I want to switch to arch

zzaw · 2013-07-10 03:47:40

Seems like my usb drives are fully ruined after dding the iso them. fdisk only shows the first 512B sector of the drive. I cant create a new partition table, nothing from the wiki works.
To top it off I couldn't even install arch, kept getting a mount error on mounting /dev/loop0.

jones · 2013-07-10 09:27:03

zzaw wrote:

Seems like my usb drives are fully ruined after dding the iso them. fdisk only shows the first 512B sector of the drive. I cant create a new partition table, nothing from the wiki works.

No, it's most likely still working! So just to give you "hope": it looks like exactly the same on Windows 7 after I used win32diskimager. Only some little amount of MB left to use and it can't be re-formatted using the typical tools. ... which is why I don't use that particular program anymore. It's essentially all the same but just more hassle to a simple procedure.

So to get the USB drive working again, I had to use these commands within diskpart:

list disk
sel disk x (x = number of usb drive)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick (took a good 2 minutes in my case, don't know why)
assign (forgot to use this, everything worked out flawlessly though)
exit

=> Look for your operating system's "diskpart" program. edit: that might just be cfdisk.

Last edited by jones (2013-07-10 09:41:08)

zzaw · 2013-07-11 00:44:23

henrik wrote:

No, it's most likely still working! So just to give you "hope": it looks like exactly the same on Windows 7 after I used win32diskimager. Only some little amount of MB left to use and it can't be re-formatted using the typical tools. ... which is why I don't use that particular program anymore. It's essentially all the same but just more hassle to a simple procedure.

Cheers, I actually found an old archlinux iso and just wrote that to the drive. Sorted the drive and I could actually install arch.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-07-02 09:15:15

Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#2 2013-07-02 14:33:28

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#3 2013-07-02 14:48:05

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#4 2013-07-02 14:56:27

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#5 2013-07-02 14:56:47

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#6 2013-07-02 14:58:06

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#7 2013-07-09 10:11:33

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#8 2013-07-09 11:11:57

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#9 2013-07-09 13:02:06

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#10 2013-07-09 13:19:05

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#11 2013-07-10 03:47:40

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#12 2013-07-10 09:27:03

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

#13 2013-07-11 00:44:23

Re: Current ISO (archlinux-2013.07.01-dual.iso), not readable after dd

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