[SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

Alfonso · 2011-07-01 00:05:15

Hello Everyone,

I've got a basic Arch system on sda3, from the core image i686 iso.
I am chrooted into it and then run the AIF installer to get it on sda4.
Core-packages.sqfs is mounted on a loopback device.

I've already set up the partitions and formatted sda4 in ext3.

This doesn't seem to be an option, so I choose to do it
manually, and cfdisk comes up. Fine. I hit 'quit' and cannot
proceed to the next step. I try again and hit 'write'
and still cannot go on to the next step.

There must be a simple way to do this manually, Right?

Any help much appreciated. I just made a real newbie mistake
and trashed my Debian on the hdd and am using puppy linux
live CD right now. Get me OUT of here! :-)

Alf

Alfonso · 2011-07-02 01:56:16

I see that this forum is really on the ball, so I'll try again,
with more details.

Working with this document:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ting_Linux

I tried the first approach, but the live CD I have, Pupylinux,
keeps going tits up unpredictably, a problem that I suspect
has to do with its extraordinarily large RAM requirements.

So then I tried the second method, way down towards the bottom
of the page.

I got the i686 core iso from kernel.org and proceeded right
up to the point where the AIF installer wanted me to
partition the hdd, which is already done. I don't want to
touch the other partitions and the one for Archlinux is
already formatted in ext3.

So I chose "manual install" and tried to just w and q
cfdisk instead of doing anything with it. AIF refuses
to proceed to the next step unless I partion the drive...

What I'm wondering, is can't I just cp -a the basic system
over to /dev/sda4, then unsquashfs the core-pkgs.sqfs
and manually install pacman which can then take over
the installation of the rest of the core packages?

I can configure network and time myself, I think. I've
done it before.

What I'm looking for here, at Archlinux, is a no-nonsense
and lightweight Linux distro. Which is basically what
Arch bills itself as.

I was satisfied wiht my old and stripped-down Debian
for a long time, but it's time for something better.
So here I am.

So thanks for hearing me out.

Alf

Lone_Wolf · 2011-07-02 17:01:12

To clarify : the AIF doesn't let you go to Manually configure block devices, filesystems and mountpoints ?

Alfonso · 2011-07-02 17:59:45

Lone_Wolf said:

"To clarify : the AIF doesn't let you go to Manually configure block devices, filesystems and mountpoints ?"

Hey!

I went there, but I didn't understand all of it and backed out. What I was talking about was actually
going to the AIF option before that one "manually partition hdd" (or close to that). It drops you into
cfdisk.

Then, because I want to preserve the partitions and their contents as they are, I just tried different
ways of exiting cfdisk without doing anything.

But AIF does not find this acceptable and won't let me proceed until I choose 1 of threa apparently
disastrous options: I have a lot of valuable personal data on /dev/sda[13] and sda2 is swap.

I don't have a lot of time today, but I've copied the base system (from iso) to sda4 and chrooted
into it. I unsquashed the core-packages file into an empty directory and am planning on untargzipping
the pacman package in / on my new Arch system. Probably will need some lib packages for it, but
I'll learn what those are from the error messages pacman gives, right?

Thanks for giving me a chance. I REALLY need a good OS.

Alf

Lone_Wolf · 2011-07-03 21:38:56

I'm not sure if that copying / extracting will work, as there's a lot to configure .

This will give you an idea about the steps the AIF takes and what needs to be configured :
Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide

MoonSwan · 2011-07-03 21:46:11

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=77157 ... a different way to install Arch while by-passing the installer itself.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=58110 ... info about AIF itself, may help ?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot ... unofficial re-working of the Arch distro ISO. I've used his archboot for almost 3 years now and I've only had an install fail once, due to stupidity.

Alfonso · 2011-07-03 22:26:08

Lone_Wolf said:

"I'm not sure if that copying / extracting will work, as there's a lot to configure."

I'm thinking it's probably not too bad with the core iso files. Or would 'hoping'
be a better word there? :)

I had the base system installed on sda4 and all the core packages, too.
I could chroot in just fine, and it was working very well indeed. Clean
and fast. And all the real utilities are there, not that busybox <delete colorful word>.

Then I got the idea that I should be applying much of what was in section one
of the install from an existing linux tutorial I posted the link to above. And
it was going fine until somryhing, and I guess it must have been udev, wiped out
the entire system in order to make / into /dev. Never seen anything like it.

OS gone, one /.dev directory full of device files remaining!

I think this was the result of the mount dev/pts command in the first part.
Done on the host system before chrooting into the temprorary
Arch there.

So I've reformatted /dev/sda4 and am going to try again. I have an fstab to use
as a template and dhcpd isn't too hard..

Thanks to you and MoonSwan for the leads. I'll follow all of them.

(i noticed that Arch has a vanilla vi installed by default -- now I'm REALLY hooked!)

Alf

Alfonso · 2011-07-03 23:45:39

The disappearing OS I described above turned out to be an illusion created
by puppylinux, with its layered filesystem. I rebooted puppy and remounted
sda4 and it was all there.

After skimming the links Lone_Wolf and MoonSwan provided, I have come
to the conclusion that I either have to edit AIF, which is probably
beyond me, keep going with the manual configuration, are try
another approach altogether...

TNX

Alf

Alfonso · 2011-07-05 04:16:31

Lone_Wolf said:

"I'm not sure if that copying / extracting will work, as there's a lot to configure" .

Right you are! And here are the details. I think I can do it. Grub freaks me out,
because I've always used Lilo, but it looks pretty simple.

It's going to be a single-boot system, so someone please tell me
if it's not okay to just walk all over Lilo with Grub.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … the_System

Alf (who is rolling up his sleeves as you read this...)

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-10 14:25:08

Hello again. This is "Alfonso". The login program rejected my username and then
the registration program wouldn;'t let me use the same username because it
was already in use! (I've notified admin here about this problem.)

I have manually installed and configured Arch from the core iso (base system
and core packages) to the best of my ability primarily using these documents:

(archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … tion_Guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ting_Linux

Now, I'm ready to try and install grub and boot the system (which works just fine
when I chroot into it. )

But the docs say to update /etc/mtab before running grub,
grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab

But this shows all the stuff mounted by the linux OS that I've chrooted
into Arch from.

Is this right?

(grub seems to work fine. I get the prompt.)

Here;s the uncommented parts of my /boot/grub/menu.1st.
Arch is in /dev/sda4 and I want grub installed in the MBR:

timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /boot/archiso.img
-----------------------------------------------------

Does that look right?

Many thanks,

Bruce (Alfonso)

P.S. This has been a fine learning experience for me. I lke the Arch Way.

Lone_Wolf · 2011-07-10 16:26:21

initrd /boot/archiso.img

That line in menu.lst is not the usual one.
Normally your /boot folder should have 2 images in it :
kernel26.img & kernel26-fallback.img

kernel26.img is tailored to your system, kernel26-fallback.img is more generic.
Check if those are present.

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-10 16:43:53

Lone_Wolf,

When I mount the core iso, this is the output of ls:

archiso.img memtest releasenotes.txt System.map26 x86test
isolinux/ memtest.COPYING splash.png vmlinuz26 x86test.COPYING

There are no *.img files in isolinus/.

Should I make an initird with the *cpio* utility?
(can't remember the complete name, but it's Arch's
'next generation' tool for initial ramdisks.)

Thanks much.

Bruce

Lone_Wolf · 2011-07-10 17:08:26

Those files are placed on /boot when installing / updating kernel26 OR when you run mkinitcpio .

Your reply #10 suggests you can chroot into the installation on /dev/sda4 .
The /boot folder on /dev/sda4 is where those images should be located.
If they are not present there, run

# mkinitcpio -p kernel26

to create them.

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-10 17:41:04

Lone_Wolf,

Ran the "mkinitcpio -p kernel26" command. Looks good.

#ls /boot

System.map26 System.map26-lts grub kernel26-fallback.img kernel26.img memtest86+ vmlinuz26 vmlinuz26-lts

Have edited /boot/grub/menu.1st.

I'm thinking it's time for the acid test. According to the docs (I don't know grub at all, though
I have been reading the wiki page on it.) I should run this command:

#grub-install /dev/sda

Looking good?

Thanks a lot,

Bruce

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-11 00:11:29

How does this look? ( I manually copied the grub libs over to /boot/grub, first)

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,3)

grub> root (hd0,3)

Was that a mistake? Should it have been (hdo,0) ?
I figured that the root partition needed to
be specified somewhere in those commands,
but recall being confused by this matter
while reading the docs.

Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,3)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

Thanks for any help here.

If this is okay, I am going to try booting Arch!

Bruce

Inxsible · 2011-07-11 04:53:51

Alfonso/Bruce,

I have deleted the Alfonso account as per your request.

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-11 09:56:51

Thank you, Inxsible. Sorry about the screwup.

Bruce

Lone_Wolf · 2011-07-11 12:47:42

brucejustbruce wrote:

How does this look? ( I manually copied the grub libs over to /boot/grub, first)
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,3)
grub> root (hd0,3)
Was that a mistake? Should it have been (hdo,0) ?
I figured that the root partition needed to
be specified somewhere in those commands,
but recall being confused by this matter
while reading the docs.

Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,3)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.
Thanks for any help here.
If this is okay, I am going to try booting Arch!
Bruce

For sda4 , hd(0,3) is correct.
Check that you also have

root hd(0.3)

in your grub/menu.lst .

Once you verified that, go ahead and try to boot it directly.

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-11 13:03:55

Lone_Wolf said:

For sda4 , hd(0,3) is correct.
Check that you also have

root hd(0.3)

in your grub/menu.lst .

Once you verified that, go ahead and try to boot it directly.

/quote

What I have is (hd0,3)

Are both syntaxes okay? I am following the example in the docs.
(Double-checking now to make sure....)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … Bootloader

The syntax used there is: (hd0,x)

So I guess I'll just go for it. Thanks a lot, Lone_Wolf.

This may actually work!

Which is like, _totally_ cool :-)

Bruce

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-11 21:45:12

I know I'm supposed to put [SOLVED] on the subject line, but I can't figure out how to edit it.

(It would be nice if someone would tell me how to do that and how to put a pic by
my name, like so many people do. I searched high and low for a link to this enfo.
Yes, I know it is probably right in front of my face, but.....)

Anyway -------------? Solved!!!!

I managed to install Arch manually from the core iso. Thanks to Lone_Wolf and
MoonSwan for the guidance.

If anyone is interested, and after I work the bugs out (like network not being
automatically up at boot time), I could write a little howto. But it was
all just reading the docs, really. Great docs. I am really impressed.

Okay. Once I get the console install perfected, it's going to be X.
Not my forte, but given my experience with Arch so far, I'll
probably be able to do it without too much trouble.

I'll just be using a simple window manager and pretty much run
Arch from xterms.

Will start a new thread about that, if necessary, and not
on this forum, I guess.

By-the-way, that is the most attractive boot screen I have ever seen.
Someone around here has a very keen sense of basic aesthetics.

I should note that I kept getting "file not found" errors from grub. So
I copied the non-dirs in /boot to /dev/sda1/boot and it went
flawlessly (except for that dhcpcd failure, which shouldn't be too
hard to fix. That's a tight little utility.

Thanks again for the help and for the first Linux distro
I have tried that truly impresses me.

Yeah!

Bruce

Inxsible · 2011-07-11 23:23:23

brucejustbruce wrote:

I know I'm supposed to put [SOLVED] on the subject line, but I can't figure out how to edit it.

Normally you'd edit your first post and append [SOLVED] to your thread title, but since the thread was started by another account of yours, which has since been deleted, you cannot do it now.

So I will

brucejustbruce · 2011-07-11 23:37:34

the inimitable inxsible said:

Normally you'd edit your first post and append [SOLVED] to your thread title, but since the thread was started by another account of yours, which has since been deleted, you cannot do it now.

So I will :-)

/quote

Thank you much!

Bruce

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-01 00:05:15

[SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#2 2011-07-02 01:56:16

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#3 2011-07-02 17:01:12

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#4 2011-07-02 17:59:45

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#5 2011-07-03 21:38:56

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#6 2011-07-03 21:46:11

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#7 2011-07-03 22:26:08

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#8 2011-07-03 23:45:39

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#9 2011-07-05 04:16:31

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#10 2011-07-10 14:25:08

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#11 2011-07-10 16:26:21

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#12 2011-07-10 16:43:53

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#13 2011-07-10 17:08:26

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#14 2011-07-10 17:41:04

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#15 2011-07-11 00:11:29

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#16 2011-07-11 04:53:51

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#17 2011-07-11 09:56:51

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#18 2011-07-11 12:47:42

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#19 2011-07-11 13:03:55

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#20 2011-07-11 21:45:12

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#21 2011-07-11 23:23:23

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

#22 2011-07-11 23:37:34

Re: [SOLVED]AIF Installer -- Can't Get Past "Partition Hdd"

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