Arch Linux

Talster

Member

Registered: 2016-05-18

Posts: 23

"error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

Hello! I have installed Debian on a throwaway computer, Manjaro on another, and now I have been attempting to install Arch for a good bit now. I came into a few problems, one of which is my mtab file not existing.

When I type

pacman -Syu

, it brings up

error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory
error: could not determine filesystem mount points
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

When I type

nano /etc/mtab

, it says it is a new file. This is related to my fstab file, correct? Pulling up the /etc/fstab file with the nano command brings the message [ Read 0 lines ].

I am sure I mounted my drives. My / partition is mounted to /mnt, and my boot partition is mounted to /boot, according to lsblk and the MOUNTPOINT column.

I am pretty stuck here, and have had other problems come up (such as pacman claiming that my / partition is full, when it seems to be using the wrong partition), but this is the problem I am currently stuck at. All help is extremely appreciated.

Thanks!

EdeWolf

Member

Registered: 2016-01-06

Posts: 85

Re: "error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

Not sure, what is going on, but try:

cd etc
ln -sf ../proc/self/mounts mtab

This may help

Last edited by EdeWolf (2016-05-18 19:30:03)

alphaniner

Member

From: Ancapistan

Registered: 2010-07-12

Posts: 2,810

Re: "error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

Are you attempting this installation when booted to Arch ISO and following the Installation Guide?

---

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
-Lysander Spooner

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,616

Re: "error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

The /etc/mtab symlink is part of the filesystem package, and is a link to ../proc/self/mounts. Is this the case on your system? Does /proc/self/mounts exist? It might not if you chrooted and didn't mount the pseudo filesystems.

Talster

Member

Registered: 2016-05-18

Posts: 23

Re: "error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

Not sure, what is going on, but try:

cd etc
ln -sf ../proc/self/mounts mtab

This may help

When I type in [cd etc], this comes up

cd:cd:6: no such file or directory: etc

Talster

Member

Registered: 2016-05-18

Posts: 23

Re: "error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

Are you attempting this installation when booted to Arch ISO and following the Installation Guide?

Yes, I am. Following the Beginner's Guide, however.

Talster

Member

Registered: 2016-05-18

Posts: 23

Re: "error: could not open file: /etc/mtab: No such file or directory"

The /etc/mtab symlink is part of the filesystem package, and is a link to ../proc/self/mounts. Is this the case on your system? Does /proc/self/mounts exist? It might not if you chrooted and didn't mount the pseudo filesystems.

I tried

cd /proc/self

, and I did find the mounts file.