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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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 Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 2:56 pm Post subject: Invalid partition table - help!!! |
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I have a BIG problem, my computer has to be ready on monday morning
and I cannot seem to get it to work...been trying since thursday morning.
And I haven't even begun all the X and kde-compilation!!!
Please help me - I really am desperate 
I'll try to explain the problem and the needed info.
The laptop I am using is a IBM Thinkpad T22.
I have installed Windows XP Pro first on a partition /dev/hda1
I done the complete installation process for gentoo, except
for compiling any window managers or X.
I have created three partitions:
dev/hda2 boot
dev/hda3 swap
dev/hda4 /
Here is the problem, when I tried to umount /mnt/gentoo
I got a:
device is busy.
So I just rebooted - not very smart I know, but I didn't know what to do!
When I rebooted I got the message:
Invalid partition table.
Now, I don't know what to do??? I tried to find the error by starting up
with the LiveCD and mounted the filesystem, but I could not see any errors in grub.conf or in fstab?
Here are my grub.conf and fstab:
fstab
| Code: |
/dev/hda2/ boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 1
/dev/hda4 / ext3 noatime 0 0
/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
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and grub.conf
| Code: |
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/hda4
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.4.20-gentoo-r6
title=Windows XP Pro
root (hd0,0)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
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Let me know if you need to now anything else from my .conf files
and i'll post them immediately.
Hope someone can help me or I'll be fired come monday morning  |
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neilhwatson
l33t
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Posts: 719
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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I've seen this before. You have to be sure the new partition info is saved. The best way to ensure that in my experience, is to boot the Gentoo CD, partition the drive and then reboot. After a reboot the partition table should be set. Then you can begin building the filesystems and continuing with the install.
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The true guru is a teacher.
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agent_jdh
Veteran
Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 1783
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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For a start, this line in /etc/fstab looks wrong
| Code: |
/dev/hda2/ boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 1 |
You probably mean for it to look like this-
| Code: |
/dev/hda2 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 1 |
Do you get the grub loader screen when you boot btw? If not, it means grub hasn't been installed correctly.
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:58 pm Post subject: I dont want to start all over? |
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| neilhwatson wrote: | | I've seen this before. You have to be sure the new partition info is saved. The best way to ensure that in my experience, is to boot the Gentoo CD, partition the drive and then reboot. After a reboot the partition table should be set. Then you can begin building the filesystems and continuing with the install. |
Yeah, but then I have to start all over right? Is there no way to save my already finished install?
2. What shall I do when
| Code: | umount /mnt/gentoo
Device busy |
happens?
I cant understand why gentoo is giving me such a hard time |
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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You were right, it was just a typo. It says /boot in my /etc/fstab.
| agent_jdh wrote: | | Do you get the grub loader screen when you boot btw? If not, it means grub hasn't been installed correctly. |
no, nothing happens. I immediately get the Invalid partition table-error.
what to do, what to do... |
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agent_jdh
Veteran
Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 1783
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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| gojners wrote: | You were right, it was just a typo. It says /boot in my /etc/fstab.
| agent_jdh wrote: | | Do you get the grub loader screen when you boot btw? If not, it means grub hasn't been installed correctly. |
no, nothing happens. I immediately get the Invalid partition table-error.
what to do, what to do... |
Boot off the livecd and do cfdisk /dev/hda to see if your partitions are there. If yes, try to write the partition table and reboot.
If not, you might have a serious problem. And you might have hosed your XP install too. I hope you backed up...
Incidentally, cfdisk would have told you the first time around that your system needed to be be rebooted for your partition changes to take effect.
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| agent_jdh wrote: | Boot off the livecd and do cfdisk /dev/hda to see if your partitions are there. If yes, try to write the partition table and reboot.
If not, you might have a serious problem. And you might have hosed your XP install too. I hope you backed up...
Incidentally, cfdisk would have told you the first time around that your system needed to be be rebooted for your partition changes to take effect. |
I ran cfdisk and could see my four partitions...I wrote the three linux partitions to disk, but I still get the same annoying error:
Invalid partition table
I used fdisk during the installation and it didn't tell me anything? |
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Hello
n00b
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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Do you have any important data on the windows partition? If worse comes to worst, why not just reboot with the windows installation disk and try wiping the entire hard drive clean with that disk?
Then, after that's done you can try installing gentoo again. I would recommend using stage 3 to save time. In fact, if you have the live cd's, you will not even have to compile x or kde. All in all, windows takes about an hour to install. And, installing gentoo will not take very long if you are not compiling. |
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Hello wrote: | Do you have any important data on the windows partition? If not, why not just reboot with the windows installation disk and try wiping the entire hard drive clean with that disk?
Then, after that's done you can try installing gentoo again. I would recommend using stage 3 to save time. In fact, if you have the live cd's, you will not even have to compile x or kde. All in all, windows takes about an hour to install. And, installing gentoo will not take very long if you are not compiling. |
You're right, I can dp that...the problem is that I have done it a couple of times already
The problem I have had with my LiveCD and stage 3 is that it does require net access. For exampel, when I follow the installation instruction
and run
| Code: | | emerge -k gentoo-sources |
it starts trying to download...is there someway around this?
yes I know, I have the old installation notes - but that is because
I have an old LiveCD. I find it more easy to follow than the new ones...besides I gave up after burning two different versions of gentoo and either one could not be used to boot from
If I could learn how to compile gentoo without internet access I would be really happy, since I dont have Internet at home (and have to come
in to work really early and stay really late)...what am I doing wrong since my installation looks for the ebuilds on the Internet instead of the LiveCD???[/code] |
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cyrillic
Watchman
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 7313
Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| gojners wrote: | If I could learn how to compile gentoo without internet access I would be really happy, since I dont have Internet at home (and have to come
in to work really early and stay really late)...what am I doing wrong since my installation looks for the ebuilds on the Internet instead of the LiveCD??? |
In order to install Gentoo from the LiveCD without internet access, you need to setup a couple of things :
Use the portage snapshot from the CD (don't emerge sync).
Copy the packages from the CD to your portage/packages directory.
Set the PKGDIR= line in /etc/make.conf to point to this directory.
Use the -K option to emerge only prebuilt packages. |
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deadaim
Guru
Joined: 27 Oct 2003
Posts: 467
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Make sure you installed a bootloader. I recommend using GRUB. |
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boroshan
l33t
Joined: 16 Apr 2003
Posts: 730
Location: upside down
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 7:47 pm Post subject: Re: I dont want to start all over? |
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| gojners wrote: |
2. What shall I do when
| Code: | umount /mnt/gentoo
Device busy |
happens?
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I get that sometimes when I do an install. It's usually because I cd'd into the /mnt/gentoo directory so I could untar the stage file locally. Then I enter the chroot and build the system. When I exit, I've forgotten that I'm still in the directory and it won't unmount because the file system is still in use.
cd back to /root and the problem goes away
It can also happen (I think) if you mount a partition inside the chroot and then exit from it without unmounting said partition again. Or if you ran a program that uses files on the partition
can you mount the partitions from a live cd boot? sounds like you should be able to
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Earthwings
Bodhisattva
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7753
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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For the "Invalid partition table" error: Does
| Code: |
$ grep MSDOS_PART /usr/src/linux/.config
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give you
| Code: |
CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
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? |
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| Earthwings wrote: | For the "Invalid partition table" error: Does
| Code: |
$ grep MSDOS_PART /usr/src/linux/.config
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give you
| Code: |
CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
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? |
Yes, it does - but how does it help me? |
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:27 am Post subject: |
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| cyrillic wrote: | | gojners wrote: | If I could learn how to compile gentoo without internet access I would be really happy, since I dont have Internet at home (and have to come
in to work really early and stay really late)...what am I doing wrong since my installation looks for the ebuilds on the Internet instead of the LiveCD??? |
In order to install Gentoo from the LiveCD without internet access, you need to setup a couple of things :
Use the portage snapshot from the CD (don't emerge sync).
Copy the packages from the CD to your portage/packages directory.
Set the PKGDIR= line in /etc/make.conf to point to this directory.
Use the -K option to emerge only prebuilt packages. |
OK, thanks - this was really helpful!! One more thing though...what would you recommend...
installing XP first -> then Gentoo & GRUB
or is there an easier way of doing this - since I manage to screw
it up every time  |
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 11:53 am Post subject: Re: Invalid partition table - help!!! |
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Since I have gotten the wonderful error message:
Invalid partition table
a couple of times - I thought it was best to check with you guys,
that I'm not, unknowingly, doing it wrong everytime.
Here's the partitions:
| gojners wrote: |
I have installed Windows XP Pro first on a partition /dev/hda1
I have created thrre partitions with gentoo:
dev/hda2 boot
dev/hda3 swap
dev/hda4 /
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Ok, here is what I wrote the last time, configuring GRUB:
| Code: |
grub>root (hd0,1) (Since my boot partition is dev/hda2)
grub>setup (hd0,4) (Since my / partition is dev/hda4)
grub>quit
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My grub.conf and /etc/fstab is posted above...why doesn't GRUB work
when I do this...is something wrong with my GRUB-commands?
and thanks to all you guys for the previous posts!!
 |
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agent_jdh
Veteran
Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 1783
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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Well, you've got a fundamental mistake there in your grub configuration.
| Code: | grub>root (hd0,1) (Since my boot partition is dev/hda2)
grub>setup (hd0,4) (Since my / partition is dev/hda4)
grub>quit |
The way you've set up grub here is if you were using it as a secondary boot loader. I'm guessing you want to use it as a primary boot loader to select between WinXP and Gentoo when you switch your PC on, yes?
So what you want to do in this situation is to run the grub setup command to install on your mbr. You really want this-
| Code: | grub>root (hd0,1) (Since your boot partition is /dev/hda2)
grub>setup (hd0) (Since you want grub installed in the mbr)
grub>quit |
What installation guide are you following? Both of the ones I've looked at explain this reasonably well.
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gojners
n00b
Joined: 27 Mar 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks!
Now it works...you were right of course!
Too much coffee and the stress made me believe that I knew what
I was doing so I didn't read the installation notes as good as I should have!
Thanks again!!!!
You've made my day!
was the key  |
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Installing Gentoo
