John Tan wrote:
> Yep, I put /boot on Linux software RAID-1 on all my machines. Dell has a
> .pdf that explains how to install grub on the other device (actually,
> it's more comprehensive than this, but that's the relevant part to this
> discussion). Here's a listmail version of that .pdf:
>
> http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2003-July/014331.html
Interesting reading.
My experience with kickstart installation of grub in the mbr is that
it doesn't work for CentOS 4, at least using software raid.
The relevant kickstart lines were:
zerombr yes
bootloader --location=mbr
part raid.11 --ondisk=hda --asprimary --start 1826 --end 1950
part raid.21 --ondisk=hdd --asprimary --start 1826 --end 1950
raid /boot --fstype=ext2 --level=RAID1 --device md0 raid.11 raid.21
But at reboot, no grub.
So I reboot with "linux rescue" from the CD.
Using the grub commands (with the ideas from the Dell reference)
and knowing that my boot directory is in /dev/hda1 (/dev/hdd1)
grub> device (hd0) /dev/hda
grub> (hd0,0)
grub setup (hd0)
This solved the problem for next reboot.
What went wrong? I kept the anaconda.log file from the installation
(too bad that it is not saved in the /root directory) where I read:
* moving (1) to step bootloadersetup
* MBR not suitable as boot device; installing to partition
(...)
* GRUB command root (hd0,0)
install /grub/stage1 d (hd0,0) /grub/stage2 p (hd0,0)/grub/grub.conf
So there are 2 questions:
- why did anaconda refuse to install grub in the mbr?
- why my system not boating with grub in the partition?
Maybe the mbr was not zeroed?
If anyone understand more... I am pretty sure there is a bug there.
I can show my ks.cfg and anaconda.log if usefull.
Another concern that I have with kickstart is: how can I erase
(or reuse) raid1 partitions without erasing others?
Seems that the questions was frequently asked (google) but never
answered. Any good clue?
Thanks a lot for CentOS.
Anne
