Arch Linux

Lexion

Member

Registered: 2008-03-23

Posts: 510

arch installer not detecting all my partitions

I have a macbook 2.1, and i am dual booting OS X and arch linux,  I have 4 partitions in /dev/sda.  The arch installer only detects three of them.  I have been following the macbook and official install guide articles on the wiki.  However, the last time, it saw all of them.

What's wrong?

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urxvtc / wmii / zsh / configs / onebluecat.net
Arch will not hold your hand

nycthbris

Member

Registered: 2007-10-23

Posts: 10

Re: arch installer not detecting all my partitions

Are you using rEFIt? I had the same problem except the installer was only recognizing the my first partition /dev/sda1. I believe you have to sync the partition table so that the installer can recognize all four. You can do this from the rEFIt menu by selecting the "Start Partitioning Tool" option. It should prompt you to sync your tables if they aren't already. Afterwards the installer should recognize all of your partitions.

Lexion

Member

Registered: 2008-03-23

Posts: 510

Re: arch installer not detecting all my partitions

Yes I am, and I just tried the partitioning tool and it got an error:

Error, File not found from gptsync.efi.

I googled for this, but didn't find anything, so I reinstalled rEFIt, but it still doesn't work.  Is there any other way to update the MBR
or fix this issue?  Also, the partitions aren't showing up in /dev

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urxvtc / wmii / zsh / configs / onebluecat.net
Arch will not hold your hand

nycthbris

Member

Registered: 2007-10-23

Posts: 10

Re: arch installer not detecting all my partitions

Was there any other output included with the gptsync.efi error such as the GPT and MBR tables?

Lexion

Member

Registered: 2008-03-23

Posts: 510

Re: arch installer not detecting all my partitions

Yes.  It is identical to the output provided from the partition inspector in the *.dmg

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
#      Start LBA      End LBA  Type
1             40       409639  EFI System (FAT)
2         409640     77742119  Mac OS X HFS+
3       78006272    156301311  Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A    Start LBA      End LBA  Type
1              1       409639  ee  EFI Protective
2         409640     77742119  af  Mac OS X HFS+
3       77742120    156296384  05  Extended (CHS)

MBR contents:
Boot Code: None

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af  Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 78006272:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data

Partition at LBA 77742120:
Boot Code: None
File System: Unknown
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 05  Extended (CHS)

EDIT: Almost identical, this output doesn't contain an error.

Last edited by Lexion (2008-12-28 17:05:34)

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urxvtc / wmii / zsh / configs / onebluecat.net
Arch will not hold your hand

Lexion

Member

Registered: 2008-03-23

Posts: 510

Re: arch installer not detecting all my partitions

Solved: if you use cfdisk/fdisk it writes to the MBR, not the GPT, which is what you want.

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urxvtc / wmii / zsh / configs / onebluecat.net
Arch will not hold your hand