# 9.0 Install error "couldn't create directory /dist: read-only file system"



## radicall (Sep 23, 2012)

I tried installing both FreeBSD and PC-BSD, same error with both.

The PC is a desktop AMD64 a few years old (non-EFI bios). I have two hard drives: One SATA and one ATA. The SATA drive has Linux on it. The ATA drive also has Linux on it, but with plenty of free space to spare.

So I am trying to install onto the ATA drive, but using MBR partitioning to preserve the Linux.

It seems to partition OK with a slice containing /, swap and so on, and I tried defaults and custom arrangements. The partitioning stage seems OK. But after that, looks like during the file copying stage, something is wrong. I get these:
"Input/Output error". "Couldn't create directory /dist: read-only file system."
"error mounting /dev/cd0 on /dist"

Why is / not writable? 

I tried everything I could. Even running sysinstall instead of the newer bsdinstall and examining and trying various the install options. The 'source' option says CDROM and the 'install path' option says / Partitioning also installs a brain-dead boot screen listing the available boots: Pressing any key simply results in '#' characters as in "Boot: ############" and weirdly, the '#' characters are appearing by themselves randomly about once every few seconds. The random characters suggest that it is receiving input from some place other than the keyboard, like my modem or mouse. 

I'm glad I have my main Linux disk attached as well because its boot loader is still working. However as I mentioned I have a Linux partition on the BSD drive
 as well, and when I choose to boot it hangs shortly after, and I discovered that I have to delete the BSD partition in order to be able to boot that Linux partition.

In fact the PC-BSD CD, and possibly FreeBSD, actually freeze up right at the beginning when the spinning "\" appears if a BSD partition already  exists - I have to delete it in order to boot up the install CD/DVDs.

Does BSD not like MBR partitioning schemes? Does it not play well with Linux partitions and bootloaders? I will see what drive I can completely wipe and try BSD's own partitioning scheme.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.
Tim.


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## jjthomas (Sep 28, 2012)

I am fighting the same problem.  I have an PATA CD ROM and SCSI hard disk.  I've spent several hours trying to get FreeBSD installed and it just fails after I commit to the partition changes.  I tried to install it from the command line but made a mistake.  I also tried to install PC-BSD, it finish but when I booted, there was nothing there.

In the mist of all this I had a couple of installs fail because the installed could not find the CD-ROM it booted from.  I also tried installing from a USB disk.

I've tried both the sysinstall and bsdinstall.

In my case BSD is the only OS I have on my computer and I just cannot get it to install.  It seems like it can't write to the hard disk.

Just to make sure I wasn't having a hardware problem I threw CentOS on the computer and it completed fine.

I'm also getting an error,  Error mounting partition /mnt: mount: Invalid argument.

-JJ


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## jjthomas (Sep 29, 2012)

I narrowed it down to FreeBSD is not able to create a partition on a SCSI hard disk when it is booted off PATA CD-ROM, or when a PATA CD-ROM connected to the system.  If I disconnect the CD-ROM I can write partitions.

-JJ


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## wblock@ (Sep 29, 2012)

With problems like this, identifying the specific hardware is really important.  The particular model of SCSI controller, for example.


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## jjthomas (Sep 29, 2012)

Yes, that would help.  The Harddisk is an SCSI 8GB Seagate Cheeta.  
MB is an Asus A8N-SLI deluxe, with 4GB of RAM.
Other hard disks are PATA Maxtor 230 GB
SATA WD 230GB and Seagate 500GB.

I tried to install PC-BSD but it errored out citing it needed 10 GB on the install drive.  I put everything back together and I was able to successfully install FreeBSD onto the PATA Maxtor HD, even with the SCSI drive connected.

Let me know if you need anything else.  

Thank you.

-JJ


```
# pciconf -lv
none0@pci0:0:0:0:       class=0x058000 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005e10de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 Memory Controller'
    class      = memory
isab0@pci0:0:1:0:       class=0x060100 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005010de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 ISA Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-ISA
none1@pci0:0:1:1:       class=0x0c0500 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005210de rev=0xa2 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 SMBus'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = SMBus
ohci0@pci0:0:2:0:       class=0x0c0310 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005a10de rev=0xa2 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 USB Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
ehci0@pci0:0:2:1:       class=0x0c0320 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005b10de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 USB Controller'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = USB
pcm0@pci0:0:4:0:        class=0x040100 card=0x812a1043 chip=0x005910de rev=0xa2 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller'
    class      = multimedia
    subclass   = audio
atapci0@pci0:0:6:0:     class=0x01018a card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005310de rev=0xf2 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 IDE'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = ATA
atapci1@pci0:0:7:0:     class=0x010185 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005410de rev=0xf3 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 Serial ATA Controller'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = ATA
atapci2@pci0:0:8:0:     class=0x010185 card=0x815a1043 chip=0x005510de rev=0xf3 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 Serial ATA Controller'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = ATA
pcib1@pci0:0:9:0:       class=0x060401 card=0x00000000 chip=0x005c10de rev=0xa2 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 PCI Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
nfe0@pci0:0:10:0:       class=0x068000 card=0x81411043 chip=0x005710de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 Ethernet Controller'
    class      = bridge
pcib2@pci0:0:11:0:      class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x005d10de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 PCIE Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
pcib3@pci0:0:12:0:      class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x005d10de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 PCIE Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
pcib4@pci0:0:13:0:      class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x005d10de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 PCIE Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
pcib5@pci0:0:14:0:      class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x005d10de rev=0xa3 hdr=0x01
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'CK804 PCIE Bridge'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = PCI-PCI
hostb0@pci0:0:24:0:     class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11001022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb1@pci0:0:24:1:     class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11011022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb2@pci0:0:24:2:     class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11021022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
hostb3@pci0:0:24:3:     class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x11031022 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]'
    device     = 'K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control'
    class      = bridge
    subclass   = HOST-PCI
ahc0@pci0:5:6:0:        class=0x010000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x81789004 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Adaptec'
    device     = 'AHA-2940U/UW/D / AIC-7881U'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = SCSI
uart2@pci0:5:7:0:       class=0x070002 card=0x00011000 chip=0x98359710 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'NetMos Technology'
    device     = 'PCI 9835 Multi-I/O Controller'
    class      = simple comms
    subclass   = UART
fwohci0@pci0:5:11:0:    class=0x0c0010 card=0x808b1043 chip=0x8023104c rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Texas Instruments'
    device     = 'TSB43AB22A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) [iOHCI-Lynx]'
    class      = serial bus
    subclass   = FireWire
vgapci0@pci0:1:0:0:     class=0x030000 card=0x82781043 chip=0x06e410de rev=0xa1 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'nVidia Corporation'
    device     = 'G98 [GeForce 8400 GS]'
    class      = display
    subclass   = VGA
```


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