[TriLUG] Problems with debian software raid install.

[David A. Cafaro]

I toggled the /dev/hda1 as bootable (at least in the debian  
installer), but there wasn't an option to toggle /dev/md0 as  
bootable.  I believe only /dev/hda1 needs to be toggled as I think  
that's a BIOS search (which wouldn't be aware of the /dev/md0 device).

-David

On Oct 8, 2007, at 2:18 PM, William Sutton wrote:

> did you toggle your raid boot partition to bootable?
>
> William Sutton
>
>
> On Mon, 8 Oct 2007, David A. Cafaro wrote:
>
>> Hmm, that doesn't seem to be the problem I'm having.  Everything
>> seems to have gone smoothly, no complaints about partition or file
>> system creation.  And it does actually create the raid system and
>> install all the software as requested (and confirmed using the Fedora
>> rescue CD).  It just won't boot.  Thanks though.
>>
>> -David
>>
>>
>> On Oct 8, 2007, at 2:11 PM, William Sutton wrote:
>>
>>> I have Etch running on a pair of PATA drives using RAID1.  The Etch
>>> installer (or I) seem to have issues creating layered filesystem  
>>> types
>>> (e.g., ext3 on lvm on raid).  My recollection of what I had to do  
>>> was
>>> this:
>>> - create the raid filesystem
>>> - instruct the installer to continue (to force it to actually write
>>> the fs
>>> information)
>>> - the installer would determine (after creating the raid fs) that it
>>> didn't have an fs it could write to and bump you back to the fs
>>> creation
>>> part of the installer
>>> - then select the newly created raid partitions for your new  
>>> fs's, set
>>> things as you want, lather, rinse, repeat until you have your
>>> filesystems
>>> the way you want
>>>
>>> it's a bit of a pain...either I'm doing something wrong or (I
>>> think) the
>>> etch installer fs creation code needs fixing
>>>
>>> William Sutton
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, 8 Oct 2007, David A. Cafaro wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ok, I need some help.  I'm normally a RedHat/CentOS/Fedora person,
>>>> but for this project I needed to go with Debian.  One  
>>>> requirements is
>>>> that the two 160GB hardrives be setup to provide software raid.  No
>>>> problem the Debian installer seems to handle that no problem and  
>>>> I'm
>>>> able to setup everything how I would like:
>>>>
>>>> /dev/hda1 108GB raid1 bootable flag
>>>> /dev/hda2 20GB raid1
>>>> /dev/hda3 20GB raid1
>>>> /dev/hda4 2GB raid1
>>>>
>>>> /dev/hdc1 108GB raid1 bootable flag
>>>> /dev/hdc2 20GB raid1
>>>> /dev/hdc3 20GB raid1
>>>> /dev/hdc4 2GB raid1
>>>>
>>>> /dev/md0 108GB / raid1
>>>> /dev/md1 20GB /home raid1
>>>> /dev/md2 20GB /tmp raid1
>>>> /dev/md3 2GB swap raid1
>>>>
>>>> (that's roughly how it's setup)
>>>>
>>>> All seems to go well debian install goes right through and installs
>>>> all the software, claims grub is installed and reboots.  At which
>>>> point I get a no bootable device found.  I think maybe grub didn't
>>>> get install correctly so I try booting into debian rescue.  Debian
>>>> can't mount the raid, doesn't see it, just the raw raid partitions.
>>>> Just for kicks I boot Fedora 6 rescue, it sees the partitions no
>>>> problem and mounts them all for me to work with.  So from Fedora 6
>>>> rescue I chroot and reinstall grub, reboot, and still no boot
>>>> devices.  Then I find the following article:
>>>>
>>>> http://valery.bgit.net/blog-en/2006/07/30/debian-installer-sata- 
>>>> and-
>>>> software-raid/
>>>>
>>>> And figure I'll give that a shot.  I step through the whole article
>>>> (converting SATA to PATA instructions) and no problem, reboot  
>>>> and no
>>>> bootable devices.  At this point I've started trying to play  
>>>> with the
>>>> bios settings to see if that helps, I'm just wondering if there  
>>>> is a
>>>> known issue with Debian Grub and booting from software raid devices
>>>> (which should not be a challenge like this).  Any clues?
>>>>
>>>> And this is Debian Etch v 4.0 r1 i3.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> David
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> David A. Cafaro <dac at cafaro.net>
>>>> Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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