[SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

likemike · 2020-01-07 19:02:19

Hello all,

So I followed a guide at: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=121650 on creating a raid 0 array that I foolishly followed into formatting two of my partitions with ext2 and now no matter how many repartitionings and reboots I do, I cannot seem to change it to ext4. After re-partitioning and verifying that it is supposed to be ext4, when I try to to use

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda1

to put grub on it, it gives me:

grub-install: warning: File system 'ext2' doesn't support embedding 
grub-install: error: embedding is not possible, but this is required for cross-disk install.

Also I'm not sure whether I'm even supposed to be installing grub on /dev/sda1, I think I have to install it on the array /dev/md0 but I'm not entirely sure because when I try that it outputs disk 'md0' not found

I cannot seem to find anything useful to me out there on these after a good amount of google-fu and so I've turned to the forums.

Update: wipefs -a -f worked

Thanks,
-likemike

Last edited by likemike (2020-01-09 08:16:46)

xerxes_ · 2020-01-07 19:44:26

wipefs may be useful (read manual (print 'man wipefs') in terminal), option -t may be useful. Also print output of command 'parted -l /dev/sda'

Warning:

wipefs -a /dev/sda

will erase information about all partitions from device sda, so be careful if you have precious data on other partitions on that device! You may do backup, like in examples in manual.
Above command is useful to get rid partitions information from usb sticks.

Last edited by xerxes_ (2020-01-07 19:54:02)

frostschutz · 2020-01-07 23:33:57

Also I'm not sure whether I'm even supposed to be installing grub on /dev/sda1

No. Why not /dev/sda?

Trilby · 2020-01-08 00:37:05

Post actual diagnostics. The output of `fdisk -l` and `lsblk -af` would be a good start.

likemike · 2020-01-08 01:22:28

frostschutz wrote:

Also I'm not sure whether I'm even supposed to be installing grub on /dev/sda1
No. Why not /dev/sda?

No good reason. Just something I saw in a video made me unsure. So should I install grub on my boot partition (/dev/sda1)?

jasonwryan · 2020-01-08 01:27:05

likemike wrote:

Just something I saw in a video made me unsure. So should I install grub on my boot partition (/dev/sda1)?

No. You should read the wiki and stop relying on stupid video "tutorials" that are inevitably out-of-date, wrong, or more likely both.

likemike · 2020-01-08 01:51:45

Trilby wrote:

Post actual diagnostics. The output of `fdisk -l` and `lsblk -af` would be a good start.

Output of fdisk-l:

Disk /dev/sdb: 447.13 Gib
Disk model: KINGSTON SA400S3
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimal/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: got Disk identifier: 5969779B-172A-7447-8570-86B28A150FA9

Device          start.    End.     Sectors.     Size. 
/dev/sdb1  2048.   411647.  409600. 200M
Type Linux filesystem (the rest of the partitions are also of the type linux filesystem)
/dev/sdb2 Size= 2G
/dev/sdb3 Size= 91G

Disk /dev/sda: 111.81Gib 
Disk model: Samsung SSD 850
Disklabel type: gpt 
(All partitions are of the type linux filesystem and the same sizes as /dev/sdb)

Disk /dev/md0: 181.89 Gib
(No partitions on this disk)

Output of lsblk -af:

NAME.     FSTYPE.     LABEL.     UUID
sda 
  sda1.        ext4        
  sda2.        ext4
  sda3.        linux_raid_member archiso:0 
     md0.      ext4

sdb 
  sdb1.        ext4
  sdb2.        swap 
  sdb3.        linux_raid_member archiso:0
      md0.     ext4

Sorry I couldn't put the full output I had to type these out on my phone.

likemike · 2020-01-08 01:59:37

xerxes_ wrote:

wipefs may be useful (read manual (print 'man wipefs') in terminal), option -t may be useful. Also print output of command 'parted -l /dev/sda'
Warning:
wipefs -a /dev/sda
will erase information about all partitions from device sda, so be careful if you have precious data on other partitions on that device! You may do backup, like in examples in manual.
Above command is useful to get rid partitions information from usb sticks.

Just tried wipefs -a -f /dev/sda and /dev/sdb
Will get back to you soon to let you know if it worked

loqs · 2020-01-08 03:44:27

Why did you need to wipe anything? The issue was you trying to place grub on a filesystem which grub detected as ext2,
but that is not relevant, the issue is you were not installing it to the whole device as pointed out in post #3. Please reread GRUB#Installation.
Edit:
ext2, ext3, ext4 share the same superblock magic identifier.

Last edited by loqs (2020-01-08 13:52:22)

likemike · 2020-01-09 02:20:21

loqs wrote:

Why did you need to wipe anything? The issue was you trying to place grub on a filesystem which grub detected as ext2,
but that is not relevant, the issue is you were not installing it to the whole device as pointed out in post #3. Please reread GRUB#Installation.
Edit:
ext2, ext3, ext4 share the same superblock magic identifier.

Oh ok, that clears things up. I misinterpreted him saying /dev/sda as that I should install it on boot partition /dev/sda1. I'll do that.

Arch Linux

#1 2020-01-07 19:02:19

[SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#2 2020-01-07 19:44:26

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#3 2020-01-07 23:33:57

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#4 2020-01-08 00:37:05

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#5 2020-01-08 01:22:28

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#6 2020-01-08 01:27:05

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#7 2020-01-08 01:51:45

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#8 2020-01-08 01:59:37

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#9 2020-01-08 03:44:27

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

#10 2020-01-09 02:20:21

Re: [SOLVED]How to get rid of ext2 filesystem on partitions and make ext4

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