Arch Linux

oneill

Member

Registered: 2020-12-08

Posts: 3

Initial Install with an /sbin partition = sbin exists in filesystem

Howdy arch community,

FNG here, I'm following the install wiki, but when I go to install from my liveboot to hard drive via

"Mount the file systems
Mount the root volume to /mnt. For example, if the root volume is /dev/root_partition:

# mount /dev/root_partition /mnt
Create any remaining mount points (such as /mnt/efi) using mkdir(1) and mount their corresponding volumes."

The /mnt/sbin partition is throwing filesystem check errors

--debug flag
filsystem conflicts: linux-firmware
returning error 47 from _alpm_sync_check : conflicting files
filesystem: /mnt/sbin exists in filesystem

Obviously removing the /sbin mount results in success, and I'm probably dumb for creating a separate partition for /sbin but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ this is Arch right.

I think it's one of the linux-firmware checks, so it looks like I might need to gen my own arch iso to sidestep that? Any recommendations/suggestions or just forget that partition?

Thanks

edit: it looks like /sbin is a symlink to /usr/sbin which is then a symlink to /bin which is symlinked to /usr/bin... aight. I don't think I want to nest /usr/bin as a partition if I'm not mistaken?

Last edited by oneill (2020-12-08 09:19:55)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,361

Re: Initial Install with an /sbin partition = sbin exists in filesystem

sbin is a symlink to /usr/bin on Arch, so yes it's not a good idea to have that on a separate partition unless you wanted to maintain your own filesystem package. What do you seek to gain from having that as a separate partition? Every package will write to /usr/bin so you'd have to maintain separate versions  of packages you deem to be "sbiny" based on some arbitrary criteria.

Last edited by V1del (2020-12-08 09:16:25)

oneill

Member

Registered: 2020-12-08

Posts: 3

Re: Initial Install with an /sbin partition = sbin exists in filesystem

sbin is a symlink to /usr/bin on Arch, so yes it's not a good idea to have that on a separate partition unless you wanted to maintain your own filesystem package. What do you seek to gain from having that as a separate partition? Every package will write to /usr/bin so you'd have to maintain separate versions  of packages you deem to be "sbiny" based on some arbitrary criteria.

I just didn't realize those directories had been mooshed together on Arch, if I had, I probably would have tried to partition /bin... why? Who knows, I don't care much about the sbin vs bin sorting arguments, I always leave the default packages in those directories alone anyways and stick all of my stuff in /usr/local/bin.

Why~ lol I do know why, because I partitioned this disk months ago and made a partition for /sbin and was just being too lazy to delete it.

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,652

Re: Initial Install with an /sbin partition = sbin exists in filesystem

Unless you really know what you are doing, you should not make partitions for /bin, /sbin, /usr, ...

Doing so requires special treatment by your initramfs, which has to mount those filesystems for you, or leave you with an unbootable system (can't mount anything if mount binary itself is not mounted yet)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,515

Website

Re: Initial Install with an /sbin partition = sbin exists in filesystem

And all that's kind of a moot point as there is nothing in /sbin - as noted above, there isn't really even an /sbin (just a link named that).  So even if one could mount a partition to /sbin two things would happen: 1) nothing would ever be written to that device, it'd remain empty, and 2) it'd mask the link so any calls explicitly trying to access /sbin/<binary> would fail.

So just remove the partition, or use it for something else.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,387

Re: Initial Install with an /sbin partition = sbin exists in filesystem

if I had, I probably would have tried to partition /bin.

Would have given the same error as /bin is also a symlink to /usr/bin .

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky