2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

tpowa · 2009-05-21 08:25:03

Hi Arch community,

Arch Linux (archboot creation tool) 2009.05-2, "Schmuie" has been released.
To avoid confusion, this is not an official arch linux iso release!
Check Readme.txt file for more information on archboot.
ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/iso/archboot/Readme.txt

Summary:
Rather a small update to last 2009.04 files, it includes the new toolchain, the mentioned fixes below
and some new goodies for system backup/copying/rescue.
Version 2009.05-2 fixes the weird grub installation bug, 2009.04 and 2009.05-1 were removed from mirrors.

Hybrid image file and torrent is provided, which include
i686 and x86_64 core repository. Please check md5sum before using it.

Hybrid image file is a standard CD-burnable image and also a raw disk image.
- Can be burned to CD(RW) media using most CD-burning utilities.
- Can be raw-written to a drive using 'dd' or similar utilities.
This method is intended for use with USB thumb drives.

Please get it from your favorite arch linux mirror:
ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/iso/archboot/2009.05/
<yourmirror>/iso/archboot/2009.05/

Changelog:

GENERAL:
- kernel 2.6.29.4 usage
- pacman 3.2.2 usage
- RAM recommendations:
* arch or arch64 boot image
256 MB RAM i686/x86_64 (all packages selected, with swap partition)
* lowmem or lowmem64 boot image
96 MB RAM i686/x86_64 (all packages selected, with swap partition)

FIXES:
- fixed iwlwifi-3945-ucode and ipw2100-fw
- added missing license files
- added more dm-* kernel modules for lvm2 and dmraid
- added missing kernel firmware files
- added missing atm modules
- fixed ide-legacy mode after installation

New Setup Features:
- added syslinux support

Environment changes:
- added dhclient
- added simple copy-mountpoint.sh script for system copying, backup etc.
- added experimental fsarchiver for system copying, backup etc.
- added iwlwifi-5150-ucode
- updated pacman mirrorlist
- added xz-utils
- replaced vi with vim package (vi is too much stripped now)

KNOWN ISSUES:
- None

Further documentation can be found on-disk and on the wiki.
Have fun!

greetings
tpowa

Last edited by tpowa (2009-05-31 15:06:21)

Anonymo · 2009-05-21 18:27:23

Thank you for making this. I won't be testing it out since the last one was so good

tpowa · 2009-05-21 20:19:38

Never mind, it's just a release to make a good ISO even a bit better, if you don't need the above things, 2009.04 is not that different.

irfan · 2009-05-22 17:02:22

Thanks for this tpowa!
I will test it today.

Leye · 2009-05-22 21:37:25

Hi,

I use this release for a new installation. Everything worked fine until I wanted to install GRUB. GRUB installation seems to stuck, it just displays the message "Installing GRUB" or whatever is shown on the blue-grey menu. I was still able to switch to other terminals, and reboot, but GRUB wasn't installed. 2009.04, however, worked splendidly for me. I don't know if it's because of my machine or a serious bug.

tpowa · 2009-05-23 07:54:32

Haven't changed anything in grub part, and test installs here worked fine.
Was it a virtual machine or a real machine?
You could retry and tell me what you have exactly done.

Leye · 2009-05-23 09:46:45

I've already feared that it's because of my machine, it's driving me mad once again.

I followed the installation routine as always, only the GRUB part didn't work for me. However, this time I bypassed the problem by installing GRUB through a Ubuntu Live environment (I'm sure it must have worked also in the archboot environment, Ubuntu was just my first idea).

Now GRUB works fine, and I'm afraid I cannot tell you anything more about the problem. Here are just some things that I noticed during my installation:

I thought I could avoid the stuck screen by skipping the last option in the installer (installing GRUB), and install GRUB via the command line. However, when I were in the GRUB console and tried "root (hd0,1)", GRUB complained about some missing files ("hd0,1" is correct). "grub install /dev/sda" didn't work also. I challenged my luckiness and opened the GRUB installation in the menu, worked t hrough the point when GRUB install into the MBR, and once again it stuck. While it was stuck however, I could use "root (hd0,1); setup (hd0)" in the GRUB console. Anyway, when I restarted, there was no GRUB installed at all, and my machine restarted over and over again, not until I installed GRUB through Ubuntu.

I'm afraid my machine is just a Sorgenkind, I think there's nothing wrong with your archboot release. In any case, I do appreciate the work you do, since archboot is the only possibility to install Archlinux on my machine, and I'm glad that I can use your archboot ISO. Thanks you for making this.

irfan · 2009-05-23 10:07:56

I wanted to install archlinux on friend's computer, but I've get an error:

ata2: device not ready (errno=-16)

And I was unable to create new partitions.
I have this problem with 2008.12 archboot cd also.

tpowa · 2009-05-23 12:20:36

try ide-legacy boot option seems pata is not working on the machine.

R00KIE · 2009-05-23 14:33:20

While testing the boot image (x86-64) in virtualbox I have also stumbled upon the grub install problem, restoring grub as indicated in the wiki here http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Reinstalling_GRUB didn't seem to work, the procedure indicated here http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub did work and the machine booted properly after a reboot.

Edit:
I have done the restoration after the grub install got stuck.

Last edited by R00KIE (2009-05-23 14:35:35)

tpowa · 2009-05-23 16:05:56

hrm what is the exact error you get?
I tried the chrooting and it works fine here.

R00KIE · 2009-05-24 21:03:51

tpowa wrote:

hrm what is the exact error you get?
I tried the chrooting and it works fine here.

I have tried to install again in virtualbox, ftp install, x86_64, base packages only, nothing added or removed, ext4 / and ext4 /home ~1G each, dynamically growing hd, sata disk.
Everything goes well until trying to install grub. That I could see there are no messages why grub may be failing to install during setup. I have killed the setup and did a reboot, followed by trying to reinstall grub by following this guide of the wiki http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Reinstalling_GRUB

After completing all steps and when grub-install /dev/sda is issued there is the following output

Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
df: Warning: cannot read table of mounted file systems
df: Warning: cannot read table of mounted file systems
Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device.

I did clear the first 100 sectors of the hard disk prior to doing this test to ensure grub is not there already and simulate a clean/new hard disk.

As I've said following this guide in the wiki did work http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub

Another thing not directly related to this problem, why is "support" group available when installing from cd-rom / usb / other and not available when installing from ftp? And what does support install?

Edit:
Forgot to say, this may be related to some nasty bug in virtualbox, I'm reporting as much info as I can just in case this also happens with "real" machines.

Last edited by R00KIE (2009-05-24 21:05:55)

nfm · 2009-05-25 01:03:58

Stuck at 'Installing the GRUB bootloader...'
Damn .

tpowa · 2009-05-25 05:21:57

nfm: real machine or do you use a vm?
Which filesystem you used?

rookie:
support is created during image creation,
it's a different code part this enables me to create isos with packages that are not in core, like ntfs-3g or dhclient for example.

damjan · 2009-05-25 15:12:10

It seems that Grub is really reaching it's end of life .. extlinux might be a good replacement, but as of now it still doesn't have ext4 support

nfm · 2009-05-25 19:02:45

tpowa wrote:

nfm: real machine or do you use a vm?
Which filesystem you used?.

Hi, real machine and ext4. I think it may be happening because of extended partitions, I fixed it by rebooting and installing grub on 'root (hd0,4)' off the CD.
df:

/dev/sda6             15749216   6123412   8825772  41% /
none                    512816         0    512816   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda7             31498564  20213812   9684680  68% /home
/dev/sda5               124427     17666    100337  15% /boot
/dev/sda2             20770812   8710896  12059916  42% /media/disk-1
/dev/sda3            104857596  37317480  67540116  36% /media/disk-2
/dev/sda1               102396     24736     77660  25% /media/System Reserved

fdisk:

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              13        2599    20770816    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            2599       15653   104857600    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           15653       21645    48130740    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           15653       15669      128488+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6           15669       17661    16000708+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7           17661       21645    32001448+  83  Linux

I was thinking that GRUB tried installing itself on sda5, which is the extended partition table and in reality /boot is sda4. I may be wrong.

thiago907 · 2009-05-25 22:41:30

nfm wrote:

Stuck at 'Installing the GRUB bootloader...'
Damn .

same here . using jfs as filesystem on a real machine

2009.04 works fine here

tpowa · 2009-05-26 05:23:25

hrm thiago also using extended partition?

Leye · 2009-05-26 07:41:34

For the record, here's my configuration:

(Real machine ) with 4 partitions, i.e. no extended. GRUB installed in MBR, / is ext4.

2009.04 also worked fine with me, I hope we can help you find the issue.

R00KIE · 2009-05-26 10:40:33

I was not using any extended partition, just two primary partitions, one for / and another for /home.
I didn't get to test 2009.04, I'll give it a try later and report back.

Edit:
I have tested 2009.04 and it does work well with the same setup that makes 2009.05 fail.

Last edited by R00KIE (2009-05-26 16:01:00)

feliperibeiro · 2009-05-26 16:39:45

I've gotten the very same problem with GRUB. Just stuck at "Installing the GRUB bootloader...".
I tried several times with the same result.

Installing on real machine with no extended partitions. / -> ext4 ; /var -> ext4 and /home -> ext4.

EDIT: I tried just with the 2009.05-1 version.

Last edited by feliperibeiro (2009-05-26 16:47:09)

lseubert · 2009-05-26 16:43:22

Last I heard, grub still can't handle ext4 partitions. (Blame the slow development process over at GNU.)

So, if you set up either a /boot or / partition with ext4 (or jfs/xfsas well?), grub won't be happy.

Try setting up a small, separate /boot partition using ext2 or ext3 - grub is known to work with those filesystems. 50 MB should be enough, but I like to set mine around 250 MB just to have some extra room in case I ever start playing with a lot of different kernel images. Then, all your other partitions can be set up in ext4, jfs, xfs, or whatever you want.

Cheers,
Luke Seubert

P.S. Another advantage to having a separate ext2 or ext3 based /boot partition is that you can readily use LVM and/or encryption on all your other partitions, in addition to different filesystems.

P.S.S. Apparently the folks at GNU are doing a total rewrite of their bootloader, and we'll someday see the bootloader to end all bootloaders - truly every wonderful thing under the Sun will be in it. It will be released any decade now. See: http://grub.enbug.org/FrontPage

Last edited by lseubert (2009-05-26 16:51:24)

feliperibeiro · 2009-05-26 16:58:56

lseubert wrote:

Last I heard, grub still can't handle ext4 partitions. (Blame the slow development process over at GNU.)
So, if you set up either a /boot or / partition with ext4 (or jfs/xfsas well?), grub won't be happy.
Try setting up a small, separate /boot partition using ext2 or ext3 - grub is known to work with those filesystems. 50 MB should be enough, but I like to set mine around 250 MB just to have some extra room in case I ever start playing with a lot of different kernel images. Then, all your other partitions can be set up in ext4, jfs, xfs, or whatever you want.
Cheers,
Luke Seubert
P.S. Another advantage to having a separate ext2 or ext3 based /boot partition is that you can readily use LVM and/or encryption on all your other partitions, in addition to different filesystems.
P.S.S. Apparently the folks at GNU are doing a total rewrite of their bootloader, and we'll someday see the bootloader to end all bootloaders - truly every wonderful thing under the Sun will be in it. It will be released any decade now. See: http://grub.enbug.org/FrontPage

There's a patch that provides ext4 support for GRUB. Arch's GRUB package comes with this patch by default.

thiago907 · 2009-05-26 18:15:55

tpowa wrote:

hrm thiago also using extended partition?

no. i'm using 2 partitions one for /boot (ext2) and another for / (jfs).

tpowa · 2009-05-27 06:57:21

hrm i don't have time to check on the grub issue till the weekend, but it's a strange thing the setup routine wasn't changed,
since 2009.04 only syslinux support was addede which is a complete other part.

If you could do me a favour, try 2009.04 iso with setup file from 2009.05, if this breaks it's a setup issue.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-05-21 08:25:03

2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#2 2009-05-21 18:27:23

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#3 2009-05-21 20:19:38

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#4 2009-05-22 17:02:22

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#5 2009-05-22 21:37:25

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#6 2009-05-23 07:54:32

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#7 2009-05-23 09:46:45

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#8 2009-05-23 10:07:56

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#9 2009-05-23 12:20:36

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#10 2009-05-23 14:33:20

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#11 2009-05-23 16:05:56

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#12 2009-05-24 21:03:51

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#13 2009-05-25 01:03:58

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#14 2009-05-25 05:21:57

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#15 2009-05-25 15:12:10

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#16 2009-05-25 19:02:45

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#17 2009-05-25 22:41:30

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#18 2009-05-26 05:23:25

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#19 2009-05-26 07:41:34

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#20 2009-05-26 10:40:33

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#21 2009-05-26 16:39:45

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#22 2009-05-26 16:43:22

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#23 2009-05-26 16:58:56

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#24 2009-05-26 18:15:55

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

#25 2009-05-27 06:57:21

Re: 2009.05-2 archboot "Schmuie" ISO hybrid image and torrent released

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