Help archlinux-2009.02 installs read only? [Solved]

Pi · 2009-03-20 07:24:38

So after having used linux for a little over a year, and at least thinking I had an idea of what was going on (although I'm finding out there's a first time for everything...) I discovered Arch. I really like the concept behind it, and would really, really like to get it to work, but after 3 days of trying to get it to install right I'm at my wits end.

Here's the deal, I'm not afraid of a terminal, but before I put Arch on my main computer I decided to try it out on my test computer to work out any bugs or kinks in a trial install so I know what to expect. My test computer is 8 yrs old (1.2Ghz Celeron, 512 mb ram, and 40gig hd), but it's on the good to go list. So after burning a archlinux-2009.02-core-i686.iso cd I try to install the legacy IDE version.

I go through the beginners install guide, and setup is doing its thing, and I never get any errors... Reboot the computer log in as root and can't ping anything. O.k go to check out rc.conf, and tweak a couple things. It's then I find out that I can't save the file. It's mounted as read only. Weird.. o.k. go to change the file permissions. That doesn't work either. Even as root I can do nothing in the system. Everything is read only, and nothing is mounted at all.

Ooh k... maybe somewhere during the install I botched something. So I try to install again. Go back through the beginners guide again, and end up with the same result. After rebooting and logging in everything is still read only.

Alrighty then....

So as a last resort I try another install. Except this time I go line by line using exactly (or as close as I can infer) what the beginners guide says. Even so far as using the same partition setup and hd space used. I did setup the filesystems as ext4 to try them out, but otherwise I copied the guide. And lo and behold the exact same thing happens again. During boot all that stuff that scrolls across the screen is telling me it can't do its thing because it's read only and once logged in root can do nothing because it's read only. df and du don't work or report zero or 4k. Just typing mount doesn't show anything. fdisk -l says nothing is mounted. ls -l reports zero....

After 3 days of lurking around the forum n googling...and trying everything I could think of or read (hey if it didn't work I could always re-install) And I did do a search on the forum, but didn't find anything unless I over looked it. I am literally like that smiley that bangs it's head against a wall. I don't want to go back to a Ubuntu or Mint. I want a streamlined system with only what I put on there like Arch preaches, but....

So in the end any help ya'll could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by Pi (2009-03-20 07:52:36)

SkonesMickLoud · 2009-03-20 07:27:22

Put "rw" (no quotes) in your kernel line in grub?

Pi · 2009-03-20 07:47:41

Holy crap it's always the simple things.

Thank you Mr. Skones (I'm guessing you're male based on your screen name?). Three days of bangin my head against a wall and you solved it in what appeared to be seconds. I've never been on a forum that somebody responded that fast. I was thinking I may get one response in 5 days with like 10 views. Really thank you again. That's just awesome.

Now I just gotta figure out how to set the title to say the problems been resolved.

lilsirecho · 2009-03-20 14:43:34

Go to your initial post and use EDIT (lower right) to allow you to enter the title with your remarks.

haxit · 2009-03-20 15:38:16

Now that is a detailed description of the problem.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-20 07:24:38

Help archlinux-2009.02 installs read only? [Solved]

#2 2009-03-20 07:27:22

Re: Help archlinux-2009.02 installs read only? [Solved]

#3 2009-03-20 07:47:41

Re: Help archlinux-2009.02 installs read only? [Solved]

#4 2009-03-20 14:43:34

Re: Help archlinux-2009.02 installs read only? [Solved]

#5 2009-03-20 15:38:16

Re: Help archlinux-2009.02 installs read only? [Solved]

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