[Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

needles6 · 2017-05-26 03:37:36

Hello, this is my first time installing arch. I'm installing it from a usb onto a toshiba laptop. Whenever I type fdisk -l, it lists:

Disk /dev/sdb: 465.8 GiB
Disk /dev/loop0: 369.5 MiB
Disk /dev/sdc: 7.6

Below that it lists

Device
/dev/sdc1

(There was a lot more information, but I left it out to save time. I will write it all out if need be)

When I use cfdisk, it says: cfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: No such file or directory
I can use cfdisk to edit my hard drive at sdb, but there is no option to make it bootable. Is there a way to change my hard drive from sdb to sda?

Last edited by needles6 (2017-05-27 19:29:47)

x33a · 2017-05-26 04:29:58

Why do you want to use /dev/sda only?

In any case, what's the output of

ls -l /dev/disk/by-*

needles6 · 2017-05-26 14:22:19

Whenever I used cfdisk, there was no option to make a primary partition, and there was no option to make it bootable. I assumed it was because the drive was on sdb instead of sda.

The output is this:

/dev/disk/by-id:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 26 13:50 ata-HGST_HTS545050A7E380_141107TE85135G36JWYN -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 25 22:04 ata-TSSTcorp_CDDVDW_SU_208FB_S11S6YEF8016GJ -> ../../sr0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 26 13:51 usb-PNY_USB_2.0_FD_04000000000016485-0:0 -> ../../sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 26 13:51 usb-PNY_USB_2.0_FD_04000000000016485-0:0-PART1 -> ../../sdc1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 26 13:50 wwn-0x5000cca7fled402f -> ../../sdb

/dev/disk/by-label:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 26 13:51 ARCH_201705 -> ../../sdc1

/dev/disk/by-partuuid
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 26 13:51 005d5f03-01 -> ../../sdc1

/dev/disk/by-path:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 26 13:51 pci-0000:00:10.0-usb-0:1:1:0-scsi-0:0:0:0 -> ../../sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 26 13:51 pci-0000:00:10.0-usb-0:1:1:0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1 -> ../../sdc1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 26 13:50 pci 0000:00:11.0-ata-1 -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 May 25 22:04 pci-0000:00:11.0-ata-2 -> ../../sr0

/dev/disk/by-uuid:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May 26 13:51 4432-6AAE -> ../../sdc1

frostschutz · 2017-05-26 14:43:07

Usually for sda to be missing means there was an sda device (so sda is in use) at the time the sdb/c/d were detected, and then sda for some reason or other vanished later.

It could also be a card reader with no card inside or some such thing. dmesg output might help resolve the mystery.

needles6 · 2017-05-26 15:09:26

frostschutz wrote:

Usually for sda to be missing means there was an sda device (so sda is in use) at the time the sdb/c/d were detected, and then sda for some reason or other vanished later.
It could also be a card reader with no card inside or some such thing. dmesg output might help resolve the mystery.

Whenever I typed in dmesg, it returned:

blk_update_request: I/0 error, dev loop0, sector 13422
blk_update_request: I/0 error, dev loop0, sector 13424
SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x68dea0
(There were twelve more squashfs errors, and 7 more blk_update_request errors)

If I typed in dmesg output, it just returned four SQUASHFS errors.

fsckd · 2017-05-26 15:57:12

What is the output of `lsblk -f`?

Edit: If network is working, you can get output out to copy to the forums with help from a paste service with a commandline API. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … in_clients

frostschutz · 2017-05-26 17:00:11

needles6, dmesg should output a lot more than just that. Send it to a pastebin and tell us the URL

dmesg | nc termbin.com 9999

Read errors on squashfs are very unusual. It's a readonly filesystem... so how can there be any errors?

My guess here is, your USB stick (presumably with live linux media on it, as that's about the only place where you'll see a squashfs) started out as /dev/sda and then was unplugged/replugged (or just wonky in general). Since a loop device backed by /dev/sda was already created, /dev/sda is still in use, and so the same USB stick ended up as /dev/sdc when it was eventually plugged back in or re-detected.

(The live environment is shot at this point, rebooting is a must)

Last edited by frostschutz (2017-05-26 17:02:13)

needles6 · 2017-05-26 17:57:59

fsckd wrote:

What is the output of `lsblk -f`?
Edit: If network is working, you can get output out to copy to the forums with help from a paste service with a commandline API. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … in_clients

Using the curl command results in the same blk_ujpdate_request: I/0 error, dev loop0, sector 7498.

The output of lsblk-f is:

NAME FSTYPE LABEL UIUID MOUNTPOINT
loop0 squashfs /run/archisio/sfs/airootfs
sdb
sdc
|_sdc1 vfat ARCH_201705 4432-6AAE
sr0

needles6 · 2017-05-26 18:05:34

frostschutz wrote:

needles6, dmesg should output a lot more than just that. Send it to a pastebin and tell us the URL

Read errors on squashfs are very unusual. It's a readonly filesystem... so how can there be any errors?
My guess here is, your USB stick (presumably with live linux media on it, as that's about the only place where you'll see a squashfs) started out as /dev/sda and then was unplugged/replugged (or just wonky in general). Since a loop device backed by /dev/sda was already created, /dev/sda is still in use, and so the same USB stick ended up as /dev/sdc when it was eventually plugged back in or re-detected.
(The live environment is shot at this point, rebooting is a must)

dmesg | nc termbin.com 9999 also returns a squashfs error.

[71653.774146] SQUASHFS error: unable to read fragment cache entry [68dea0]
[71653.774306] SQUASHFS error: unable to read page, block 68dea0, size 98a4
[71653.774146] SQUASHFS error: unable to read fragment cache entry [68dea0]
[71653.774306] SQUASHFS error: unable to read page, block 68dea0, size 98a4
zsh: Input/output error: dmesg
Use netcat.

Should I just reboot the computer and start the installation over? Or should I go further and make a new arch linux usb stick?

frostschutz · 2017-05-26 19:01:22

Oh, now I understand what you mean.

Your live system is already so broken down that not even dmesg works. So it tries to execute dmesg (by loading the /bin/dmesg binary or whatever) but that fails because the squashfs holding that binary is already dead and gone.

No choice here but to reboot.

Or should I go further and make a new arch linux usb stick?

The stick isn't necessarily bad, but for some reason or other it was disconnected when it shouldn't be. Either you actually pulled it, or there is a problem with cable / hub / chipset / driver.

After reboot try run dmesg first thing. That way it should be cached in RAM and keep working later on even if the issue should appear again.

If it happens right away you probably need another stick, or a live system that loads itself into ram first so it will no longer depend on the USB. I don't know if ArchLinux actually has a toram option.

Last edited by frostschutz (2017-05-26 19:03:03)

needles6 · 2017-05-26 19:27:58

Well, I just rebooted ran dmesg and fdisk -l, and everything seems to be working fine. Here is the output of dmesg, just in case: https://ptpb.pw/lFpr
Thank you all for the help!

x33a · 2017-05-27 13:21:13

Please mark the thread as solved by editing your first post and prepending [solved] to the title.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-05-26 03:37:36

[Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#2 2017-05-26 04:29:58

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#3 2017-05-26 14:22:19

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#4 2017-05-26 14:43:07

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#5 2017-05-26 15:09:26

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#6 2017-05-26 15:57:12

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#7 2017-05-26 17:00:11

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#8 2017-05-26 17:57:59

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#9 2017-05-26 18:05:34

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#10 2017-05-26 19:01:22

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#11 2017-05-26 19:27:58

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

#12 2017-05-27 13:21:13

Re: [Solved] Hard drive is sdb. sda is not listed

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