I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

trusktr · 2015-03-25 05:32:12

I'm getting I/O errors that happen shortly after booting the live media (both February and March releases) after a short amount of time, usually a few minutes. The behavior seems as if I've pulled out the thumb drive that the media booted from. Here's a screenshot of the errors (if you know how to copy the output from the native linux terminal after the fact, please let me know).

I've tried more than one thumb drive with the same result, which leads me to think it might not be a hardware problem. Any ideas on how to find the cause?

Last edited by trusktr (2015-03-25 05:36:13)

loafer · 2015-03-25 06:06:18

Why not just redirect the output to a file?

trusktr · 2015-03-25 07:16:21

@loafer It just appears in the terminal when I don't do anything, f.e. the command line is waiting for me to input some command, then those messages appear out of nowhere without me running a command.

loafer · 2015-03-25 10:20:59

And there are no journal entries corresponding to these events at all?

trusktr · 2015-04-08 06:17:07

Do you mean output of dmesg? The dmesg command doesn't work whenever this starts happening. It just says

> dmesg
zsh: Input/output error: dmesg

I just tried this right now with this month's live media. I'm going to go buy a new thumbdrive and see if that's not the problem.

Last edited by trusktr (2015-04-08 06:24:57)

alex.theoto · 2015-04-08 17:47:22

And try another usb port.

Last edited by alex.theoto (2015-04-08 17:48:37)

trusktr · 2015-04-14 18:51:16

Alright, so I got another thumbdrive, tried multiple USB ports, and even tried it on another MacBook, and I run into the same problem each time, so it seems unlikely to be failing hardware.

I can consistently reproduce the problem each time by starting the install media, then doing this:

wget ghz.me/11C # shortlink to new mirrorlist
mv 11C /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist # uncomment kernel.org mirror
pacman -Sy --needed base-devel vim # hit enter for all packages when prompted

Then after doing that, the I/O errors will start flooding the terminal after a relatively short random amount of time, but I'm not sure if the steps I'm taking are a direct cause.

The MacBook has 16gb, so there's plenty of space available for installing packages. I don't think that's an issue.

Might it be something specific with the newer MacBook hardware? Maybe the MacBook is disconnecting or powering off the USB drive? I can't really tell because once the I/O errors happen, I cannot run a single command in order to check. All three thumbdrives don't have LED lights either. That would be a hint (if the lights turn off). I'll see if I can get one with lights.

As a temporary workaround, maybe I can put the live media onto a partition of the MacBook's internal drive and boot from there. I'll give that a try.

Last edited by trusktr (2015-04-14 18:54:10)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-03-25 05:32:12

I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

#2 2015-03-25 06:06:18

Re: I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

#3 2015-03-25 07:16:21

Re: I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

#4 2015-03-25 10:20:59

Re: I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

#5 2015-04-08 06:17:07

Re: I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

#6 2015-04-08 17:47:22

Re: I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

#7 2015-04-14 18:51:16

Re: I/O errors with live media on a MacBook Pro 2014.

Board footer