[Solved Partlially] I/O errors whith stage3

[FastTurtle]

Driving me to drink but using the LiveDVD on a flash drive to install, I keep getting I/O errors while trying to extract the stage3 file. Only two things I can think of causing this issue

1) the drive I'm trying to use is dying but as it's a SaS, I can't get the smart data with CrystalDiskInfo since it doesn't see any SaS on my HBA

2) The LiveDVD image is borked somehow or the flash drive is going bad.

What I am doing is testing the minimal install image on a smaller 2GB flash drive - hopefully that doesn't have the issue with I/O error. As the drive I'll be using is 2GB, I'm including the latest stage3 file on it. Should speed things up once I get back to testing/installing.
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AsRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4
128GB 3200 Mhz memory
4x 4TB Sata - 2x 2TB Sata SSD - 4x 450GB SaS - 3x 900GB SaS - 72GB SaS for Boot
LSI 9211-8i in HBA mode for all of the SaS drives
Radeon 6800 (Non XT) for GPU

[FastTurtle]

Since I was seeing the I/O errors that prevented tar from extracting the stage3 file, I had to check and see if the issue was a failing drive since it's a Refurbed. According to HD Sentinel, there's nothing wrong with the Smart Info on the drive so it's either a flaw in the Gentoo LiveDVD I was using or the flash drive I was booting from.

Right now, I've given up on the LiveDVD and will use the Minimal install to see if that hopefully solves the problem. If not, then I have to look into my hardware in case something else is going wrong but I am very doubtful of that. Yes it's possible but it's more likely that the LiveDVD image has some bugs in it so I'll work with the minimal install image.
_________________
AsRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4
128GB 3200 Mhz memory
4x 4TB Sata - 2x 2TB Sata SSD - 4x 450GB SaS - 3x 900GB SaS - 72GB SaS for Boot
LSI 9211-8i in HBA mode for all of the SaS drives
Radeon 6800 (Non XT) for GPU

[FastTurtle]

Alright: It looks as though the issue was with the livedvd image. It booted but for some reason it tossed all sorts of the I/O error when attempting to do anything.

Using the Minimal install image got the system to actually boot the kernel but following the handbook, I fell into the trap of using Grub. Sorry Grub but as you depend and attempt to start systemd - that's not installed and never will be, I'll have to pull it out and switch to efimgr.

Another element is I'll have to remove the gentoo kernel sources and stick with Vanilla-Sources. The last part is I don't use an initramfs - never needed one and tend to configure my kernels with needed drivers built-in and not as modules. Yes I do use some modules but nothing that impact the actualy system boot such as the ethernet and video drivers. So I'll have a hybrid efistub kernel with monolithic aspects such as vfat, ext4 and support for my LSI HBA (fusion-mpt) so it'll be able to access all of the drives.
_________________
AsRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4
128GB 3200 Mhz memory
4x 4TB Sata - 2x 2TB Sata SSD - 4x 450GB SaS - 3x 900GB SaS - 72GB SaS for Boot
LSI 9211-8i in HBA mode for all of the SaS drives
Radeon 6800 (Non XT) for GPU

[eccerr0r]

You have something wrong with your burn or whatever media you had your source (tarball, etc.) material from.

Grub does not require systemd. I have multiple machines without systemd and all my machines use grub. I even have grub installed on media that even Linux isn't installed...

I use initramfs almost exclusively now, it's so much more pleasant to use LABEL= to indicate my root disks, plus the ability to have root on cryptfs.
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Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

[FastTurtle]

As I stated, the kernel actually booted with the error message the systemd failed to start and the /dev/shm, /portage/tmp along with a few others were not writable - read-only mode. Might be something in the initramfs or a kernel issue but I hope to fix it as stated by pulling the gentoo-sources out along with grub.

I've never had probs with the vanilla-sources over the years and don't have any need for Grub and SystemD - GiGo from Redhat and just another point of failure. Now that Lilo doesn't work unless I want to configure the drive as a legacy MBR, I'll have to use efimgr. Heck back in 2010, I was diving into UEFI and booting EFI kernels directly on a Haswell Xeon (E3-1230) and wasn't using anything like Lilo or efimgr. Direct from the UEFI shell and setting it there to boot. So UEFI and efimgr holds little mystery or induces any fear in me. Some annoyance but that's pretty much normal when trying to fix/solve the current issues with the temp file systems.
_________________
AsRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4
128GB 3200 Mhz memory
4x 4TB Sata - 2x 2TB Sata SSD - 4x 450GB SaS - 3x 900GB SaS - 72GB SaS for Boot
LSI 9211-8i in HBA mode for all of the SaS drives
Radeon 6800 (Non XT) for GPU

[eccerr0r]

You're probably going to run into more problems using vanilla-sources as portage and openrc depend on some kernel features that are marked in gentoo-sources.
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

[Hu]

Which devices were reporting an I/O error, the device providing the run environment or the device to which the run environment was trying to write the files of the stage3? What kernel error messages were produced when this happened? What does smartctl show for the failing device? You wrote that HD Sentinel approves of it, but I would prefer to see the SMART data and let people familiar with this render an opinion.

[FastTurtle]

Hu: I did so state the systemd failed to start error mesage on the first like of the post above: Sorry but you didn't catch that. That was before stating the error message about the tmpfs being read only.

As to having the I/O errors with the LiveDVD, those were while trying to extract the stage3 file meaning the only thing that had been done at that point was create the partitions and mounting them. As to tar throwing I/O errors, that means either the tar command is borked, making the LiveDVD borked in a critial manner, or something else may be going on
the errors reported on the boot console involved tmpfs being r-o. No tmpfs writable. This was after booting into the new install so I'm not sure what the issue was and required investigation in case the drive itself was failing as it's a Refurbed. This means having to reboot into Windows where I have the diagnostic tools needed to investigate a possible hardware issue.

On the systemd failed to start error - I'm still wondering what attempted to pull that in as I do know that I'm using the openrc profile. Suspect the problem was a Genkernel install issue as it had to install Grub.

What I've done so far

switched to the basic profile,
pulled generkernel from the system - keeping the gentoo-sources,
rebuilt grub after checking it it didn't have systemd enabled and ran it's install directly.

Reconfigured the kernel drastically paying attention to any option that said "if unsure" the N and unchecking them. Seems a lot of them were selected that could cause problems. As part of the reconfig - built into the kernel those hardware features needed to boot. It's why I've only had issues with the vanilla-sources when I screwed things up. As to the comment about Gentoo Sources being the only sure way of running Gentoo, I have to ask why would that be the case? If the system wont run properly using Vanilla-Sources (Offical from Torvalds) then it can no longer be called Linux can it? Yes that's a Challenge but it's to Think it Through instead of making a Blanket Statement

Installed the kernelinstall pkg with dracut and grub flags - still have to test if it'll boot w/o errors

In reading the x11 guide, checked the kernel config to ensure the only framebuffer enabled was the EFI under drivers as I have a Radeon Card with the firmware built.

Hopefully as I have a day off, I'll be able to reboot with a working kernel and no errors.
_________________
AsRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4
128GB 3200 Mhz memory
4x 4TB Sata - 2x 2TB Sata SSD - 4x 450GB SaS - 3x 900GB SaS - 72GB SaS for Boot
LSI 9211-8i in HBA mode for all of the SaS drives
Radeon 6800 (Non XT) for GPU