Arch Linux

rino

Member

Registered: 2012-05-02

Posts: 7

[SOLVED]Error during "Install packages"

Was really hoping it'd be a long time before I had to come here for help (my first Linux install), but...

I'm having trouble with the installation. The first clue is when I'm preparing the hard drive:

After manually configuring the block devices, filesystems and mountpoints, there's a "Mount" window saying "Error mounting /dev/sdb4 on /mnt/home", likewise for var and /, but otherwise completes successfully.

Then, during package installation, every single package fails:
e.g. "warning: warning given when extracting usr/share/zoneinfo/GMTO (Can't create '/mnt/usr......')"
.... (other files unsuccessfully being extracted)
....
Installation failed

and so on for the rest of the packages.

My source is the official 2011.08 core image on a flash drive (/dev/sda1/) writing to an external hdd (/dev/sdb1, etc). I've searched the forums and the wiki and google but haven't been able to figure it out. Somehow the partitions aren't accessible to pacman, perhaps?

Hopefully I'm not missing something really obvious...

Last edited by rino (2012-05-02 14:16:21)

George

Member

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 165

Re: [SOLVED]Error during "Install packages"

Hmm, well if the mounting fails then you're not going to get much further.
IIRC there should be a detailed log from the installer on one of ther other virtual terminals if you watch this at the mounting stage you might have more luck diagnosing the failure.

rino

Member

Registered: 2012-05-02

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED]Error during "Install packages"

Thanks for the lead:

"mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb4,
             missing codepage or helper program, or other error
             In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
             dmesg | tail   or so
[DEBUG UI ] show_warning 'Mount' : and so on

and for the swap partition:

swaponning /dev/sdb3
swapon: /deev/sdb3: read swap header failed: Invalid argument

executing dmesg | tail yielded:

[<numbers here>]scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access    SAMSUNG HD502IJ     PQ: 0  ANSI: 2 CCS
[<numbers here>]sd 7:0:0:0: [sbd] Attached scsh generic sg1 type 0
[<numbers here>]sd 7:0:0:0: [sbd] <a number> 512-byte logical blocks: (500GB/465 GiB)
[<numbers here>]sd 7:0:0:0: [sbd] Write protect is off
[<numbers here>]sd 7:0:0:0: [sbd] Mode sense: 34 00 00 00
[<numbers here>]sd 7:0:0:0: [sbd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[<numbers here>]  sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4
[<numbers here>]sd 7:0:0:0: [sbd] Attached SCSI disk
FAT-fs (sdb4): bogus number of reserved sectors
FAT-fs (sdb4): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
FAT-fs (sdb2): bogus number of reserved sectors
FAT-fs (sdb2): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem

Edit: before using this harddrive, I zeroed it out using Disk Utility on Mac OSX, which left it formatted as FAT. The partitions were then created using fdisk during the Arch installer,

Last edited by rino (2012-05-02 13:43:19)

George

Member

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 165

Re: [SOLVED]Error during "Install packages"

Hmm, it doesn't look like any filesystems have been created on the partitions, did you pick the types while manually configuring the mount points? If you're reading the Beginners' Guide, after a quick glance I see that it doesn't appear to make it clear that only certain filesystems are suitable for the main partitions, if you're not familiar with the different types just make all except for the swap partition ext4 (swap should obviously be swap).

rino

Member

Registered: 2012-05-02

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED]Error during "Install packages"

Well then...

I was using vFat for everything but swap, and getting the error. Using ext4, however, worked fine. Package installation worked as well.

Thank you for your help!

Eeeeeee now for the rest!