Thanks for the quick response Guy, Here's some more info for you. Here's the output of the dd stuff: Homer:/# dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/null bs=64k 65533+1 records in 65533+1 records out Homer:/# dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/null bs=64k 138197+1 records in 138197+1 records out Homer:/# dd if=/dev/sdd of=/dev/null bs=64k 32773+1 records in 32773+1 records out That looks OK to me. So I added the mdadm package (so nobody would yell), and tried this: Homer:/# mdadm --create /dev/md0 --chunk=64 --level=linear --raid-disks=3 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 mdadm: /dev/sdb1 appears to contain an ext2fs file system size=8841040K mtime=Thu Apr 1 18:22:11 2004 mdadm: /dev/sdc1 appears to contain an ext2fs file system size=4194156K mtime=Thu Apr 1 18:23:00 2004 mdadm: /dev/sdd1 appears to contain an ext2fs file system size=2076320K mtime=Thu Apr 1 18:23:19 2004 Continue creating array? y mdadm: RUN_ARRAY failed: Invalid argument Homer:/# Then: Homer:/# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : read_ahead not set unused devices: <none> Homer:/# Do I not have the correct "personality" loaded? How do I check that? If I don't have it loaded, how do I load it? Thanks again! David ------- David J. Novak GSM Radio Firmware GSM Products Division CE/NSS Motorola Life v7.0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien -----Original Message----- From: Guy [mailto:bugzilla@watkins-home.com] Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 8:55 AM To: Novak David-DNOVAK1; linux-raid@vger.kernel.org Subject: RE: Linear Raid Problems... Looks like you have a bad disk! Apr 2 07:47:39 Homer kernel: I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 23758976 I test my disks with the dd command. Examples: To test the whole disk: dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/null bs=64k To test one partition: dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/null bs=64k I would test the whole disk. It looks like your array is assembled, but not started. Try: raidstop /dev/md0 mkraid /dev/md0 You should consider switching from mkraid to mdadm. Most people here will YELL at you for using mkraid! :) For details: man mdadm In a related issue, you should consider using RAID5. You will lose the space of one disk. However, if a disk fails no data loss and the data is accessible. Oops... I see your disks have very different sizes. Don't use RAID5! Guy -----Original Message----- From: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org [mailto:linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Novak David-DNOVAK1 Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 9:27 AM To: 'linux-raid@vger.kernel.org' Subject: Linear Raid Problems... Hi all, Sorry, but this message might be a tad long. But I'm running an UltraSparc Debian Linux (with SMP!). Anyway, I've got a few extra disks I want to span into one Uber-partion, and figured Software RAID (linear) was the way to go. I've read the howto's and the faq's, and thought I was doing everything right...but alas something is amiss, and I implore for the Linux community's help. Here's my setup: /etc/raidtab: raiddev /dev/md0 raid-level linear nr-raid-disks 3 chunk-size 32 persistent-superblock 1 device /dev/sdb1 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdc1 raid-disk 1 device /dev/sdd1 raid-disk 2 mkraid command: Homer:/etc# mkraid /dev/md0 handling MD device /dev/md0 analyzing super-block disk 0: /dev/sdb1, 8841042kB, raid superblock at 8840960kB disk 1: /dev/sdc1, 11879560kB, raid superblock at 11879488kB mkraid: aborted, see the syslog and /proc/mdstat for potential clues. mkraid version: Homer:/etc# mkraid --version mkraid version 0.90.0 Kernel version: Homer:/etc# cat /proc/version Linux version 2.4.19 (root@hopper) (gcc version egcs-2.92.11 19980921 (gcc2 ss-9 80609 experimental)) #1 SMP Fri Oct 4 19:11:01 EDT 2002 After running mkraid they syslog says: Apr 2 07:47:39 Homer kernel: I/O error: dev 08:21, sector 23758976 In desperation tried: mkraid --really-force /dev/md0 DESTROYING the contents of /dev/md0 in 5 seconds, Ctrl-C if unsure! handling MD device /dev/md0 analyzing super-block disk 0: /dev/sdb1, 8841042kB, raid superblock at 8840960kB disk 1: /dev/sdc1, 11879560kB, raid superblock at 11879488kB disk 2: /dev/sdd1, 2076320kB, raid superblock at 2076224kB mkraid: aborted, see the syslog and /proc/mdstat for potential clues. Then syslog says: Apr 2 07:50:18 Homer kernel: md: array md0 already exists! Which is weird because that exact command didn't work last night... but now mdstat says: Homer:/etc# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : read_ahead not set9L, 906C 1,1 All md0 : inactive sdd1[2] sdc1[1] sdb1[0] 0 blocks unused devices: <none> Which is weird, because last night it didn't say that... So I think the kernel thinks it's there right, but when I do an fdisk: Homer:/# fdisk /dev/md0 Unable to read /dev/md0 Or if I try to create a fs: Homer:/# mkfs.ext3 /dev/md0 mke2fs 1.27 (8-Mar-2002) mkfs.ext3: Device size reported to be zero. Invalid partition specified, or partition table wasn't reread after running fdisk, due to a modified partition being busy and in use. You may need to reboot to re-read your partition table. I think that's all the data somebody really smart might need to diagnose my problem. Thanks in advance for any info! David ------- David J. Novak GSM Radio Firmware GSM Products Division CE/NSS Motorola Life v7.0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html