'error formatting /dev/sdb2' on running installer

[orbrey]

Hi all,

Would love to get this up and running for a lot of reasons, but it's not happening at the moment.

Here's the story:

Each time on install, I've configured the settings and got everything ready but the script fails when it comes to formatting with the above error. I've used both the mini install and the live dvd, both of which run fine and have both matching md5sums and verified data when burned (at the slowest speed... I also now have a large collection of coasters). This is the 3.3 64 bit version.

The same thing happens both with the text installer and the GUI, whether the live distro is run or not, and with both the updated installer and the one that comes on the image. I've also tried running the install script from a console (as sabayonuser and root) but unfortunately got no diagnostic messages and the same fault both times. The hard drive is mounted on the nForce SATA port rather than the other one (I forget what this is but it shouldn't matter as it's not used at all anyway).

Hardware as follows:

Athlon 64 3400 (Venice core)
DFI LanParty UT NF3 250GB
2x Raptor 37gb SATA (on the nForce ports)
1x IDE DVD R/W (Think it's a pioneer, but this works fine anyway)
1x Maxtor 160gb IDE drive
2gb DDR400

I've messed with the boot priorities and get the same error whether the IDE drive is passed first, or either of the SATA's, and have ensured that all partitions are unmounted before the script was run (at least I ran umount /dev/sdb* as root, which seemed to work) but this didn't help either. I'm wanting to install to /dev/sdb 'cos sda has 64studio on at the moment and the ide drive is full of windows and games, so I haven't tried any of the other drives. I do know that sdb is sound though, it's been partitioned, formatted and fsck'd under 64studio and come up clean.

Oh, the partitions are as follows:

/dev/sdb1 /boot ext2 1gb
/dev/sdb2 / ext3 10gb
/dev/sdb3 /home ext3 16gb

Any help would be a godsend, please let me know if I can provide any more information.

Cheers,

Orbrey

[wolfden]

make sure you don't have any of your hard drives mounted. Go to Media and right click and unmount any drives.

[orbrey]

I thought I'd covered that when trying the text installer (made sure that kdm and all instances of X were dead and ran umount /dev/sdb* before running installer) but have gone back in and tried the gui again. All the drives showed up in /media but none were mounted, and I got the same error - that sdb2 could not be formatted, that this was a serious error, and that I should press enter to reboot my machine.

Hmmm...

Sorry y'all, still stuck.

[wolfden]

ooops missed that part

are you trying LVM or automatic partitioning?

[orbrey]

I'm partitioning manually, as per your I/O errors sticky the partitions are already set and all I'm trying to do each time is format each partition rather than resize it or anything. I've tried autopartitioning but am loath to leave this install on a single LVM partition - I store a lot of crap in my home folder, so I don't know if this will error cos I've always ended up going back and partitioned it manually.

So yeah, this is manual partitioning, all partitions are primaries cos there's only 3 (this install will share the swap partition on /dev/sda2 which was put there for the other distro) but I've also run the swapoff command and not got any errors re swap partitions when this has been done. I can try autopartitioning if you wish but thought it'd be best to partition outside of the live DVD and just let it format.

I know the text installer gives you the option to leave the filesystem as is, and have tried this though at present can't remember the error - I think it was that it couldn't mount sdb2 cos it was already being used by another process (this still happened after passing killall -9 X and killall -9 kdm from the console, prior to running the installer again).

Cheers once more,

Orbrey

[orbrey]

Okay, seems like it might be a dodgy drive after all even though it seems to work on other distros, so will attempt install on a different drive and shout back. Please assume it's the drive though, and thanks for the help.

Cheers,

Orbrey

[begbie]

I have the same problem.
I have an
Epox 9npa +sli 2g ram
Opteron 165 Denmark 1.8GHz Dual Core
evga 7900GS KO
3gb Sata

I have tried x86-64 and i386 both 3.3 and 3.4. (4 types)
I have tried auto-partitioning and partitioning myself many dif ways.
i had an ATI card and was getting these types of errors, then someone suggested trying an nvidia card. So I went out and bought the evga 7900GS KO.
but i still can't install, same errors, live disk (still) works.

[orbrey]

Mine was definitely a fubar'd drive, ho hum... there's a wedge of next months pay gone. Never mind, it's worth it - now successfully installed (though I'm annoyed that I didn't configure ssh, cos now I have to wait till I get home before I can enjoy it) so yeah. Thanks all.

@begbie - d'you get the same thing on any other drives? and does the drive that you want to install it on partition/format alright on other OS's? I'm at a loss as to why the graphics card would mess with hard drive mounting.

Whenever I attempted to mount the drive under the live distro it'd show as being already in use, in spite of no processes using it and it definitely not being mounted - d'you get the same thing?

[begbie]

I was using the same sata drive. I have a multi-boot set-up right now, with ubuntu, xp, and vista.
vista (64) is installed on that drive now.
Most of my install attempts have been with only one drive hooked up.

I'm at work now, so i can't try anything at the moment.

I have gotten different errors. But, usually it's something about a partition not formatting during install. I remember error messages referring to drives and partitions that were not supposed to be used for the install.
I am going to sacrifice my ubuntu install, wipe the drive and try again.
This time it will be a different sata drive.

I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I'm kinda new to linux, though i successfully installed ubuntu and Mint five or six times.
My best idea was to have nice new nvidia card and a fresh unpartitioned sata drive, and let the installer automatically partition the drive.
But no go.
I will record the error messages next time. (tonight maybe)