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#1 2011-08-26 17:29:52

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Failed install

Just tried to install Arch (2008.08.19 version), it did not work.

The install booted just fine from the CD and everything looked just fine, i went through the install process without any hickups. But upon reboot my disk was untouched, nothing what so ever got changed.

I have two disks, one old (sdb) with two versions of Slackware and a more recent one (sda) with two newer versions of Slackware (yes, i am a Slacker since around 2004). I tried to install Arch on sda1 (/) and sda5 (/home) with swap on sda4 and chose to keep the lilo i have on sda2. But as i wrote, the Arch install refused to install anything, it did not even format the partitions, though it looked like it did and the big sda5 /home partition took quite some time to "partition", but obviously it did not.

So what can be causing this? Any suggestions on how to do this?

Last edited by steelneck (2011-08-26 17:31:16)

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#2 2011-08-26 17:33:22

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Failed install

2008.08.19 ?? I hope you mean 2011.08.19.

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#3 2011-08-26 17:33:28

MoonSwan
Member
From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: Failed install

Use the newer official install cd's would help I think.  Unless you made a typo when you said "(2008.08.19 version)"?  Make sure the checksum is correct too perhaps.  I know I've certainly had some bad installs due to corruption of the ISO.

Edit:  Karol wins again.  Karol 434, rest of the forum members 1

Last edited by MoonSwan (2011-08-26 17:34:17)

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#4 2011-08-26 17:42:06

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

Yes i made a type, of course it is 2011, not 2008.

Checksum was OK on the iso and the CD seem to work just fine, the whole install process seem to work fine and everything seem normal.

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#5 2011-08-26 17:44:48

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Failed install

Have you tried installing again? Does it happen every time or just that one time?


@MoonSwan
Let's call it a draw ;P

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#6 2011-08-26 17:54:01

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

I will try once more, but since i got no errors i suppose the same thing will happen again (i am now writing this from the old OS on the partition i told Arch to format).

Is there soemthing quick and easy to check in another VT if the install actually are doing what it is supposed to do? What did it do those minutes it took when formatting, rather odd to use a lot of time and processing power doing nothing and i suppose it did the package install into ram or even /dev/null

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#7 2011-08-26 17:56:21

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Failed install

double check to see if you didn't select sdb when you meant to select sda.


Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

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#8 2011-08-26 21:39:56

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

This is getting stranger..

Now it did install (i do not think i did anything different). But the firts problem i got was that lilo did not like this new kernel, a search turned up that i had to update lilo in my old Slackware 12 (it is 13.1 i am replacing with Arch). After the lilo update i could boot inte Arch, did the pacman -Suy thing and installed mc, decided to reboot.. Now my localization was gone and no mc.. Really i started to think i was drunk, i did install mc i even used it and now it is not there, checked my .bash_history - there was no .bash_history, did "ls /usr/bin/mc" also just to check, no such file. What is this? Rebooted, now all of a sudden my localisation was back and mc was also back. Rebooted again and it was gone again, but this time i noticed some lines at boot:

Root device '801' doesen't exist. Attempting to crate it.
Creating root device /dev/root with major 8 and minor 1.

It boots and i can log in. mount says that /dev/root is monted on / and that /dev/sda5 is monted as /home. Well this explains part of it randomly i get two different filesystems as root. Things i change when the /dev/root is created do not end up on /dev/sda1. I have made around 10 reboots and 3 of them get me the real sda1 as root, 7 some strange created root. I simply do not get this.

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#9 2011-08-26 22:48:23

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

I gave up. I had a CD with the old installer, trying that instead..

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#10 2011-08-27 00:13:57

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

Now i have Arch installed on two disks, despite me telling both install to use sda1 as root. So now i have wiped 4 partitions, one of them was my whole backup with important stuff. Luckily i have the originals still around, but it will a cople of hours of copying to restore the backup. The new arch install sees sda1 as hda1, the old sees it as all the other flavours of linux i have had installed on this machine, though i can still not explain that randomness about the strange /dev/root i experienced.

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#11 2011-08-27 03:01:38

cybertorture
Member
Registered: 2010-05-05
Posts: 339

Re: Failed install

Few hints:
- Use UUID for mount points ( insted of device numbers /dev/sdxX )
- Any time when you do something with hard drives/partitions make backups ( if it is not a option, than at least you must proceed with caution and always double check )


O' rly ? Ya rly Oo

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#12 2011-08-27 10:38:06

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

This has nothing to do with mountpoints since the problem is about unmounted disks and partitions, either targets for install or pre boot. That UUID thing for mount points is also strange, i have had persistent mountpoints since 2002 when i started using Linux but Someone says they made them un-persistent and tells me i need to have persistent mountpoints.. come on. Yes it is good to have backups, which i had, but when instaslling Arch i guess it is necessary to even physically disconnect whole disks just to be on the safe side. Yes, this was a bit of steam blowing off by beeing up all night to 0530 in the morning. Now after 6 hours of sleep i will try again to see if this can be some sort of lilo/grub thing in combination with different kernels.

Geezz.. i gave Arch a try due to its package management making it easy to maintain and keep updated compared to Slackware...

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#13 2011-08-27 11:36:23

cybertorture
Member
Registered: 2010-05-05
Posts: 339

Re: Failed install

Well i did not mean to start flamewar or something, but since you are well familiar with slackware i guess it is not needed to tell you RTFM or something, but never the less look here


O' rly ? Ya rly Oo

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#14 2011-08-27 16:45:27

steelneck
Member
Registered: 2011-08-26
Posts: 57

Re: Failed install

Pulled the power cord from my old backup disk, then both the installation and boot thereafter went ok (no /dev/root), with grub from arch, not lilo. No need for anything fancy.

Now i have used some hours trying to get xorg to work properly, my screen is off, around 20 pixels is out of the viewport, ctlr+alt+bakspace do not work, neither does change of resolution by ctrl+alt+numpad plus or minus. xorg seem to have changed _a lot_ since the version that shipped with Slack 13, my xorg.conf needed a complete rework. But i just discovered that now i cannot put that power back to that old disk, the bios complains about no operating system.. this is starting to get to much. I bet that if i reinstall lilo on the new disk (thus get a broken Arch) i can put that old disk into service again.

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