[SOLVED] Trying to install Arch Linux from harddisk using /dev/sda2

Question

Hi
I'm trying to install Arch using my swap partition, following this wiki entry: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ha … stallation
What I've done:
Downloaded ISO: archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-i686.iso
Command: swapoff /dev/sda2
Command: fdisk /dev/sda and changed the system type to 83 (Linux) on /dev/sda2
Now it looks like:
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00017e5b
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1060289 530144+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1060290 3164804 1052257+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 3164805 105579179 51207187+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 105579180 488392064 191406442+ 83 Linux
It complained about device was busy, but it still seemed to have changed the system type, so I did partprobe as it wrote.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.
[root@swamp ~]# partprobe
<no output>
Next I did:
[root@swamp ~]# dd if=archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-i686.iso of=/dev/sda2
327680+0 records in
327680+0 records out
167772160 bytes (168 MB) copied, 4.3025 s, 39.0 MB/s
[root@swamp ~]# mkdir /mnt/sda2
[root@swamp ~]# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
mount: warning: /mnt/sda2 seems to be mounted read-only.
[root@swamp ~]# ls -al /mnt/sda2
total 150466
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 240 May 16 15:54 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Nov 5 01:40 ..
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 556 May 16 15:52 boot
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 448 May 16 15:54 isomounts
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 8192 May 16 15:54 overlay.sqfs
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 154058752 May 16 15:54 root-image.sqfs
And unmounted it again.
The wiki page says to type: fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck, but I get no such file while trying to open sda2fsck.
[root@swamp ~]# fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.18
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
fsck.ext2: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda2fsck
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
Can I ignore the above and continue modifying grub?
Thanks :-)
Last edited by valvet (2010-11-08 14:49:07)

Answer 1

fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck makes no sense because /dev/sda2fsck is not a deivce. If the wiki says that, then it is wrong. It's only doing a fsck anyway so probably not really needed. If you are just formatting th swap partition then use, mkfs.ext{234}.
edit:
from the wiki
# fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 3A: Optimizing directories
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda2: 243/78936 files (8.2% non-contiguous), 310519/314880 blocks
The first like should just be
# fsck -f /dev/sda2
Last edited by sand_man (2010-11-05 06:46:01)