[SOLVED] Help required to boot fresh installation. New to GPT.

diesel1 · 2013-03-28 01:44:34

Hi all,

I have been using Gnu/Linux since 1998 and Arch since 2007.

I stopped playing the pacman gamble game and had left my system for a few months between updates. I reached a state where I thought it was easier to reinstall and decided to back up my home dir and simplify my partitions back to a single / and just /tmp, /var and /home on separate drives. Also it seemed a good time to switch to GPT and use Syslinux boot loader.

I have followed the Official and Beginner's Installation instructions but cannot boot into my newly installed system. I have used /dev/ designations and UUID designations in my syslinux.cfg but when I try to boot into the new system I either get errors saying my root is a raid member or there is no /sbin/init found.

I have then tried repartitioning using standard MBR partitions but get Missing OS errors. Is there a simple path I should follow?

I am using the following drives......

/dev/sdb Kingston 30GB SSD
/dev/sdb1 /

/dev/sda Western Digital 160GB
/dev/sda1 /tmp
/dev/sda2 /var
/dev/sda3 SWAP
/dev/sda4 /home

/dev/sdc Seagate 2TB
/dev/sdc1 RAID Member

/dev/sdd Western Digital 2TB
/dev/sdd1 RAID Member

/dev/sde Western Digital 1TB
/dev/sde1 RAID Member

/dev/sdf Samsung 1TB
/dev/sdf1 RAID Member

I have installed Mint 14 and Neptune 3 on the same drives with no issues but I want to keep using Arch. I am at a loss for what to do next.

I am considering removing all drives except the 30GB SSD and the 160GB /tmp,/var,SWAP,/home drive and trying again.

Can any one hold my hand through this..... please?! I really do not want to drop Arch as it is for me *the* Linux distro.

Honestly though I would appreciate any help. I am going slightly mad!

Diesel1.

I apologise now for any lack of info but it is late and I need sleep.

Last edited by diesel1 (2013-03-28 19:41:23)

s1ln7m4s7r · 2013-03-28 11:26:33

Looking into your hd setup, i would recommend: GPT + SYSLINUX

You say you already tried this setup and couldn't boot it, but it is as easy as it gets. I must say that arch is a "do it yourself distro", so we are not supposed to hold your hand. BUT, we can help you understand what you did wrong, if you missed something, etc.

If you are able to, you can post the steps you made in your attempt to install arch, and then someone will help you with that!

REMEMBER, you should always read the wikis and search the forum to see if anyone gets the same errors as you before posting.

Last edited by s1ln7m4s7r (2013-03-28 11:27:35)

diesel1 · 2013-03-28 13:02:23

s1ln7m4s7r wrote:

Looking into your hd setup, i would recommend: GPT + SYSLINUX
as the / partition.
You say you already tried this setup and couldn't boot it, but it is as easy as it gets. I must say that arch is a "do it yourself distro", so we are not supposed to hold your hand. BUT, we can help you understand what you did wrong, if you missed something, etc.
If you are able to, you can post the steps you made in your attempt to install arch, and then someone will help you with that!
REMEMBER, you should always read the wikis and search the forum to see if anyone gets the same errors as you before posting.

Thanks for the reply. It is kind of you to 'help me understand' what I did wrong!

I tried again with a different partition set-up and re-read the wikis thoroughly. This time it has worked and I am now booted into my GPT+SYSLINUX Arch system.

From what I can see I needed a separate /boot partition on the same disk (30GB SSD) as the / partition. D'oh! It is the simple things that seem to trip me up.

Anyhow, thanks again,

Diesel1.

Inxsible · 2013-03-28 14:58:39

please mark your thread as solved

diesel1 · 2013-03-28 19:42:16

Sorry and done.

Diesel1.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-03-28 01:44:34

[SOLVED] Help required to boot fresh installation. New to GPT.

#2 2013-03-28 11:26:33

Re: [SOLVED] Help required to boot fresh installation. New to GPT.

#3 2013-03-28 13:02:23

Re: [SOLVED] Help required to boot fresh installation. New to GPT.

#4 2013-03-28 14:58:39

Re: [SOLVED] Help required to boot fresh installation. New to GPT.

#5 2013-03-28 19:42:16

Re: [SOLVED] Help required to boot fresh installation. New to GPT.

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