SSD error/corruption on btrfs format/install

I tried to install 13.1 with btrfs on a new SSD drive and got an error similar to “system error code was -3043” during the formatting. After that, the computer would hang on device detection when booting with ahci enabled.

While I didn’t try this on the same system, I was able to reformat the disk on another system while connected through USB. I therefore deduct it is not faulty.

The above attempt was done through a network install on USB or using the KDE live image.

One other aspect that didn’t work well was the setting up of users where I received a message that the username didn’t have the right format while it was just plain letters. I don’t really see a link with the above except a corruption on the USB stick or of the downloaded image. I think I have excluded both through using two medias (one was an SD card) and verifying the hash of the downloaded images.

EFI BIOS??

DOS/MBR or EFI partitioning

I don’t think BTRFS has anything to do with the problem. But It may be best to have a separate boot partition formatted ext2 or 4 because there can be problems since Grub does not fully know BTRFS Though never heard of it on Install just updates/hibernate

The BIOS is an Award from a few years ago. I don’t think UEFI applies here. There was no problem with booting or grub yet since since that point hasn’t been reached.

Any spaces in the name maybe?

When you say reformatted what do you mean? Did you make partitions? Was the system running Windows or Linux?

No space in the name. At least I didn’t type any.

I reformatted with a single partition from both a Windows and a Mac OS.

I’m gonna give it a try again, poking around. Any hint on something to try? TIA!

Hi
When you say formatting in MacOS, what hardware are you using? CPU and amount of RAM?

As pointed out, you need a small partition for /boot (ext3 or ext4) then another for / (btrfs) and another for /home (suggest ext4) and for for swap.

Connected to a macbook through a USB docking station. CPU and RAM are not really relevant if it works, are they?

Yes, I was following a suggestion from the installer to have multiple partitions.

Now, I had the idea of trying a formatting from my running system (12.3) and a similar error occurs:

  • formatting the whole disk with btrfs failed
  • formatting the whole disk with ext4 worked;
  • shrinked the ext4 to minimal size: OK;
  • added BtrFS partition on the rest or the disk: OK;
  • removed everything and formatted whole disk with BtrFS: worked! What?

I don’t really understand. I suppose I’ll try the 13.1 setup again. Any hint?

Can I have the partitionning suggestion in yast from a running system like from the installation?

Hi
Only just clarifying you wern’t installing on a Mac dual booting…

So your trying to format the ssd with btrfs from 12.3? If so, kernel and btrfs were not up to the level of 13.1.

If your wanting to do it from a running system then do it from the DVD during the install, or in my case I use the openSUSE 13.1 rescue cd on a usb device…

Yes, doing it from another machine was to recover the disk that prevented my system from booting, nothing else. Then I realised there was an option to hot plug it into my running 12.3.

At the end, I tried again with the network install, method that I’ve been using for years, and it decided to switch to an unsupported video mode/frequency for my monitor when starting X, doh! I tried putting a lower resolution to no avail. I’ll try with live KDE tonight to see if it helps.

Installation through KDE live went like a charm but now I’m kind of back to square one as the PC hangs at device detection. Any idea? I’ll Google on that later… Upgrade needed?

http://ibin.co/1WqDhTBX5Wcv

Hi
So is this a laptop, or desktop? If a desktop, maybe change/check cables. If a laptop, check the drive is seated properly.
http://superuser.com/questions/25668/bios-hangs-on-serial-ata-device-detection

It’s a desktop and I swapped cables and connectors but I understand my board had just one controller. I upgraded the BIOS which contained a new AHCI ROM.

Nothing of that helped. I have a strong suspicion for a hardware issue in the drive. I realised I can access another box on which I can try it. I’ll do that… It was my first idea in fact but I hadn’t thought I’d that box.

I could make that test on the other box and it worked just fine. I presume it’s some incompatibility on mine somewhere between MB / BIOS (AHCI) / SDD. I even picked up a newer BIOS from Tweaktown but it doesn’t help.

I continued trying and currently am at the following. If I put a big empty partition on the disk, either ext4 or BtrFS, the booting of the BIOS is successful. When I install a system with the following partitions (quite basic):

http://ibin.co/1X2zjx9zFujH

it doesn’t boot. I then reformatted them all to ext4, it still doesn’t boot. I then deleted the one that used to be for the swap and the home one and it boots (on the old system, that goes without saying).

Any idea of what is going on?

Where is the efi partition? For efi boot you must have an efi partition on the drive you boot to.

I don’t think EFI is involved here. The MB is from around 2007. Anyway, the drive keeping the system from booting at the AHCI level is not especially the one I’m trying to boot to. I just unplug the guilty drive (or remove some partitions) and the system boots.

Its an apple right. Apple has used efi for a long time. Well their version of efi LOL

I note that the other drives are showing an efi partition. I assume they are each bootable.

Since the old Apple EFI is not quite the same as the current standard EFI you may have to force things. And I have no idea if Apple BIOS supports mbr boot

Please forget about the Apple as it’s not in the loop anymore. I am now hot plugging the drive when it blocks the boot process.

The two EFI partitions in the picture are from an USB drive and an SD card that I used to boot or install the new system. Such a partition had never been written on my hard drives.

Let me summarise where I stand! The following doesn’t boot (blocks at AHCI BIOS detection) because of sdb (new install of 13.1). The running system for this snapshot is on sda (12.3). I could enter it because I hot-plugged sdb after the AHCI detection.

http://ibin.co/1X8fx6jubUo4

Now, if I delete the sdb1 swap partition, I can boot any of the systems. What I already tried (as on the screenshot) is to have it smaller than needed, on the second half of its dedicated space. Now, I am tempted to move partitions around…