Arch Linux in SSD

hleung · 2012-02-06 14:21:50

I've been using Arch Linux on my laptop for over a year now. Upon reinstallation, I've always used the "Auto Prepare Hard Disk". Everything worked great. I've recently bought an 120GB SSD (OCZ Vertext +) and tried to do the same thing. The installation procedure seemed fine. Then, at reboot, after selecting the kernel to boot from the GRUB menu, the prompt displayed the first few loading process and then went blank.

I rebooted my laptop again and there was a "Grub Error 17". This error seemed to be an error related to the partition table or something. I tried "fdisk -l" and listed all "sda1 to sda4" correctly. I thought to myself no biggy and try reinstalling Arch but this time, the procedure failed at the "Auto Prepare Hard Disk" part. Then, I tried "fdisk /dev/sda", delete all partitions, create an empty partition, save, write, and exit fdisk. The processed finished correctly, but when I do "fdisk -l" again, it says "invalid partition table" and there wasn't even a "/dev/sda1" either. I would have expected this since my drive should have only one partition. I typed "dmesg | tail" and it displayed "sda: unknown partition table". I tried various things: Linux Live, then GParted, and Partition Wizard. Nothing worked. I then plugged the SSD into my Windows machine. I managed to format it successfully. I then plugged it back into my laptop for reinstalling Arch on it. The installation went well like described above only to have every erroneous message coming out again...

Am I doing anything wrong? Should I stop using the "Auto Prepare Hard Disk" and partition the drive manually instead? Have any of you installed Arch Linux in an SSD?

Trilby · 2012-02-06 14:37:59

I can't be much help but to offer another data point: I've installed arch without any issues on 4 SSD based netbooks.

Whatever the problem is it is not just due to it being a SSD. Did you checksum the installation iso. or have you tried a different installation medium?

hleung · 2012-02-06 14:41:53

I've burned the "2011-08-19" iso release into a CD and have been using that one. I used that in the past and it worked fine.

Did you also used the "Auto Prepare Hard Disk" option on your SSD when installing Arch?

toad · 2012-02-06 15:45:05

As always, the wiki has some interesting things to say about SSDs https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives - try partitioning using a live CD before installing.

hleung · 2012-02-06 15:51:59

Hi Toad,

I did read that page, but haven't partitioned the drive manually. I've also read the partition alignment as well, but since it's using the cylinders, it should (in theory) aligned properly. I will try that again tonight (by partitioning it manually. In the meantime, if anyone has experienced this kind of thing in the past, please share~

cfr · 2012-02-07 02:12:54

When I read up on this recently, it seemed really important to use GPT rather than MBR but that's for longevity, performance etc. - I don't think it should cause errors if you don't.

I'm not sure you should count on cfdisk/fdisk etc. to align partitions correctly for an SSD but I'm not sure...

lifeafter2am · 2012-02-07 02:14:30

I use a SSD in my machine. I partitioned using GPT and boot using syslinux. All the information to do so is on the wiki.

Last edited by lifeafter2am (2012-02-07 02:14:46)

hleung · 2012-02-07 02:21:22

cfr, lifeafter2am,

Thank you for your insights. As suggested, I'll follow the wiki using the GPT and syslinux. I'll be busy for most of the time during the week, but I'll get back to you all after that (hopefully around this weekend...).

Trilby · 2012-02-07 02:26:01

Just to answer - Yes, I used autoprepare and kept all the 'default' settings of the install script (MBR + Grub).

hleung · 2012-02-07 02:27:06

Trilby,

Out of curiosity, what is the brand and the size of your SSDs?

Trilby · 2012-02-07 02:45:16

A variety - I'll have to get back to you on the details as none of them are in front of me at the moment. The most recent was a very old netbook (first generation eeepc) with a 1.5GB SSD.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-06 14:21:50

Arch Linux in SSD

#2 2012-02-06 14:37:59

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#3 2012-02-06 14:41:53

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#4 2012-02-06 15:45:05

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#5 2012-02-06 15:51:59

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#6 2012-02-07 02:12:54

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#7 2012-02-07 02:14:30

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#8 2012-02-07 02:21:22

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#9 2012-02-07 02:26:01

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#10 2012-02-07 02:27:06

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

#11 2012-02-07 02:45:16

Re: Arch Linux in SSD

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