Sorry for top-posting. If it matters these are 4K sector drives. WD10EARS. Seems like I've seen some threads about boot loaders, etc., not that I understood them. I have booted these drives in non-RAID machines though. - Mark On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 8:12 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, > I brought up new hardware yesterday for my first RAID install. I > followed this Gentoo page describing a software RAID1/LVM install: > > http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86+raid+lvm2-quickinstall.xml > > Note that I followed this page verbatim, even if it wasn't what I > wanted, with exceptions: > > a) My RAID1 is 3 drives instead of 2 > b) I'm AMD64 Gentoo based. > c) I used grub-static > > I did this install mostly just to get a first-hand feel for how to > do a RAID install and to try out some of the mdadm commands for real. > My intention was to blow away the install if I didn't like it and do > it again for real once I started to get a clearer picture about how > things worked. For instance, this set of instructions used RAID1 on > the /boot directory which I wasn't sure about. > > NOTE: THIS INSTALL PUTS EVERYTHING ON RAID1. (/, /boot, everything) > I didn't start out thinking I wanted to do that. > > So, the first problem is that on the reboot to see if the install > worked the Intel BIOS reports 'no bootable media found'. I am very > unclear how any system boots software RAID1 before software is loaded, > assuming I understand the Gentoo instructions. The instructions I used > to install grub where > > root (hd0,0) > setup (hd0) > root (hd1,0) > setup (hd1) > root (hd2,0) > setup (hd2) > > but the system finds nothing to boot from. to me this sounds like BIOS > so looking around I'm currently set up for compatibility but would > think that switching to AHCI support would be a better long term > solution. Any chance this setting is the root cause? > > I can boot from CD and assemble the /boot RAID > > livecd ~ # cat /proc/mdstat > Personalities : [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] > unused devices: <none> > livecd ~ # mdadm --assemble /dev/md1 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 > mdadm: /dev/md1 has been started with 3 drives. > livecd ~ # cat /proc/mdstat > Personalities : [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] > md1 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdc1[2] sdb1[1] > 112320 blocks [3/3] [UUU] > > unused devices: <none> > livecd ~ # mdadm --misc --stop /dev/md1 > mdadm: stopped /dev/md1 > livecd ~ # cat /proc/mdstat > Personalities : [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] > unused devices: <none> > livecd ~ # > > > Everything I expect to see on /boot seems to be there when using ls. > > Note that one possible clue - when the Intel BIOS screen first > comes up I see some hex digits flashing around in the lower right. > I've not seen this before on other machines and I beleive the > motherboard (DX58SO) does support some sort of RAID in hardware so > maybe there's confusion there? I've not selected RAID in BIOS but > possible it's trying to be too clever? > > Let me know what other info might be needed. I have concerns about > this install and will likely blow it away today and do a new one but I > figured maybe there's an opportunity to learn here before I do that. > > Cheers, > Mark > -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
