Archlinux installation: File system 'ext2' does't support embedding

I am installing ArchLinux from archlinux-2017.05.01-x86_64.iso to VMware VM per this guide.

uname -a
Linux archiso 4.10.13-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
warning: File system 'ext2' doesn't support embedding
warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists

The whole error stack:

Mount output :

Fstab:

I can see the --target has many different options but which one I will need to use?

1 Answer

You have formatted the entire disk as ext4, without partitioning it. This is evidently not compatible with GRUB.

Partition your disk using MBR or GPT. With GPT, you have to add a small (1 MiB) partition of type “BIOS Boot Partition”. The gdisk code for this type is ef02.

For BIOS boot, at the very least, you’ll want the following partitions:

• sda1: 1 MB BIOS Boot Partition
• sda2: Swap, size as needed
• sda3: Root, rest of disk

To create those using gdisk:

• o: Create new GPT scheme
• n, 1, accept default, +1M, EF02: Create BIOS Boot partition
• n, 2, accept default, +1G, 8200: Create swap partition (1 GB)
• n, 3, accept default, accept default, accept default: Create root partition
• w: Write to disk and exit

You can then continue installing.