I have always had to edit my /boot/grub/menu.lst I have /boot on md1 and root on md0 so my menu.lst looks like this: # (1) Arch Linux title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26] root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/array/root ro md=1,/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1,/dev/sdc1,/dev/sdd1 md=0,/dev/sda2,/dev/sdb2,/dev/sdc2,/dev/sdd2 initrd /kernel26.img Hope that helps, Jackson On Mon, 2009-10-26 at 09:26 -0400, Carlos Williams wrote:

I have been struggling with successfully installing Arch Linux on my PC with just two S-ATA drives. I am using the LiveCD / Netinst "2009.08". The only partition I want for RAID is simply /home. I have two identical disks and am partition as follows:

/dev/sda1 = 2048 (bootable) */boot* /dev/sda2 = 40960 */* /dev/sda3 = 102400 *RAID*

/dev/sdb1 = 2048 *Swap* /dev/sdb2 = 40960 */var* /dev/sdb3 = 102400 *RAID*

Then I create the RAID after I run "cfdisk" utility:

mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3

Once that is done, I run "/arch/setup command from the comand prompt and enter the system installer as normal. I have simply already created my disks, all I do from the installer now is assign a file system and mount point. It recognizes the RAID /dev/md0 partition I created using mdadm utility. Everything is fine but when I install Grub on /dev/sda and reboot the machine, I always fail to boot. I get some strange error that tells me to type "Control-D" for maintenance mode or something like that. If I do everything like I did above but don't create a RAID partition, Arch installs perfect!

What am I doing wrong? The Arch Wiki is not helping me at all. I have spent a week trying to follow the Wiki with help from the forums and to no avail I have given up. I can't see this being that hard. I think I bork something up when I install Grub but I get no errors and it tells me I installed Grub successfully on /dev/sda.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=80776

Thanks for any help in getting me a working Arch Linux system with RAID.

2009/10/27 Carlos Williams

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 2:06 PM, toomanymirrors

When you're in the main installer window of the Arch Linux CD, you you skip the "Install Bootloader" option or do you select it? The Wiki indicates that I should skip it and do it manually however my /boot and / partitions are not under RAID. Just my /home partition is. I would think I should be able to use it, no?

Even when I simply try to install Arch with a separate RAID1 /home partition, I have no luck.

I've installed on RAID several times in the last week (diagnosing hardware problems!) and everytime after I installed, I had to boot the LiveCD and re-run `mkinitcpio -p kernel26` before the system would boot...

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 1:18 PM, Carlos Williams wrote:

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Phillip Smith wrote:

...

I've installed on RAID several times in the last week (diagnosing hardware problems!) and everytime after I installed, I had to boot the LiveCD and re-run `mkinitcpio -p kernel26` before the system would boot...

When I fist asked why I don't see an option for Arch to configure RAID after I partition my system like I do on most popular distributions like CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc etc etc, I was told that "Arch does not hold your hand" which is fine. I liked the challenge of using the CLI to build my RAID partition & using 'mdadm' to build / activate the RAID1 mirror but after the last 3 weeks trying to follow the Wiki and forum advice, it appears that the Arch approach is extremely poor. The Wiki has great info but they mix the RAID / LVM info into all one so people who just want to mirror two or three drives get really confused with the LVM instructions randomly placed into RAID Wiki. The installer from the LiveCD / Netinst CD is very straight forward and extremely easy to configure. I am not a Linux newbie but I am very surprised that a distro which appears to be as popular and mature as Arch can't fix something as basic as RAID configuration. Everyone has noted that they had to do some kind of strange modification to get their RAID install to work. This looks really bad for me because I don't want to have to rig a system to work especially after I just installed it. It should just work. I hope someone sees this as a constructive comment and not a flame and feels its worth a fix. I would love to see the ability to get a Arch Linux RAID system going a bit more user friendly. I am not asking the configuration to hold my hand but for crying out loud...work out the box with out having to mod anything.

If you want to be constructive, create a wiki page only about raid, if there isn't already one. And you have to figure out which strange modifications are needed and why, try finding the real problem, and report it on the bug tracker.

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 8:27 AM, Xavier wrote:

If you want to be constructive, create a wiki page only about raid, if there isn't already one.

And you have to figure out which strange modifications are needed and why, try finding the real problem, and report it on the bug tracker.

I guess I will just explain what I am doing in detail. If anyone can please take some time and review my steps in accordance to what you know to be successful, please let me know. I am so badly trying to get this working on Arch. 1. Boot from the 2009.08 Netinst / Live CD 2. Login as root (no password) in the live environment 3. Add the required modules for RAID by running the following commands: - modprobe raid0 - modprobe raid1 - modprobe raid5 4. I run the 'cfdisk' utility to partition my two identical drives for RAID1 use: - cfdisk /dev/sda *sda1 = boot --- Primary --- Linux --- 2048 (MB) *sda2 = root --- Primary --- Linux --- 40960 (MB) *sda3 = raid --- Primary --- Linux raid --- 102400 (MB) *sdb1 = swap --- Primary --- Linux swap --- 2048 (MB) *sdb2 = /etc --- Primary --- Linux --- 40960 (MB) *sdb3 = raid --- Primary ---- Linux raid --- 102400 (MB) 5. I then run the command to build my RAID mirror for /dev/sda3 & /dev/sdb3 which will be used for /home. mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3 6. On the Arch Wiki page I skip the entire section under "Setup LVM and Create the / (root) LVM Volume" since I don't want LVM, just RAID. 7. On the Arch Wiki page I skip the entire "OPTIONAL" section under "Create and Mount the Filesystems" since the installer wont let you skiip this section even if you already did it via command line ahead of time. It looks like this must be done via /arch/setup. 8. I run the following command in the command line of the Live CD: rm /etc/mdadm.conf mdadm –D –-scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf 9. Verify the step I did in # 8 above: cat /etc/mdadm.conf ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=6beb1da7:823eed3e:42odcjij 10. Type /arch/setup to launch the main installer. 11. From the installer menu run the option 1 = Select Source = net 12. Setup Network 13. Choose Mirror 14. Set up the clock 15. Prepare Hard Drive(s) menu I skip the Manually partition hard drives section since I already did this in 'cfdisk' above and select option #3 for "Manually Configure block devices / filesystems & mountpoints. - /dev/sda1 = ext3 mounted on /boot - /dev/sda2 = ext3 mounted on / - /dev/sdb1 = swap - /dev/sdb2 = ext3 mount on /etc - /dev/md0 = ext3 mounted /home 16. Install packages - I install all base group packages and nothing more except 'openssh-server * sudo'. 17. Configure System: - I edit the rc.conf file to have my "hostname" and nothing else. I leave LVM=no as it is by default. - I edit the mkinitcpio.conf and add 'mdadm' on the "HOOKS" line before "filesystems" as noted in the Wiki. - Check /etc/resolv.conf - Check /etc/hosts file for correct info - Root-Password - change root password for new system - Select "Done / Return to Main Menu" 18. Do I skip "Install Bootloader" from Main Menu installer? The Wiki shows directions to do this manually however my / and /boot partitions are not on RAID, just my /home partition. Do I need to follow the method the Wiki suggests for Grub install manually -vs- automated install on /dev/sda? Please let me know what you think!

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 2:06 PM, toomanymirrors wrote:

I believe you need to add md-mod and raid1 to your rc.conf modules line. I would suggest using the installer to configure grub since /boot and / are not on raid partitions.

So you're saying during the System Configuration section I simply need to add md-mod & raid1 to my rc.con modules line in no specific order, right?

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Tobias Powalowski wrote:

You could also give the archboot files a shot, there is also raid support included: ftp.archlinux.org/iso/archboot

What is 'Archboot' and the link in the email is dead. I'd like to more ahead on just getting basic 2009.08 Arch installed with RAID1 on my /home partition. Don't want to settle for less if you know what I mean.

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Tobias Powalowski wrote:

Am Dienstag 27 Oktober 2009 schrieb Carlos Williams:

...

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Tobias Powalowski wrote:

...

You could also give the archboot files a shot, there is also raid support included: ftp.archlinux.org/iso/archboot

What is 'Archboot' and the link in the email is dead. I'd like to more ahead on just getting basic 2009.08 Arch installed with RAID1 on my /home partition. Don't want to settle for less if you know what I mean.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=77017

Thanks but I am still trying to understand what I am doing wrong and stop getting a kernel panic once I try and boot into my new system with just RAID going on /home.

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Phillip Smith wrote:

...

I guess I will just explain what I am doing in detail. If anyone can please take some time and review my steps in accordance to what you know to be successful, please let me know. I am so badly trying to get this working on Arch.

1. Boot from the 2009.08 Netinst / Live CD

2. Login as root (no password) in the live environment

3. Add the required modules for RAID by running the following commands:   - modprobe raid0   - modprobe raid1   - modprobe raid5

Everything you've written here looks correct -- except no need to load the raid0 and raid5 modules if you're not going to use them. I doubt they will be interfering, but you never know.

You should be able to install GRUB either way, I don't think it will matter. Could you share your /boot/grub/menu.lst list file with us?

Thanks for looking all that info over. I know it's a lot but I have become obsessed with getting RAID working. I could understand if I was having these issues trying to mirror my /boot and even maybe / partition but I am simply attempting my /home which to my understanding hardly impacts the system from booting into the kernel or anything of that nature. I didn't think I really needed to load the raid0 & raid5 modules before I start the disk partitioning however at this point I am so confused as to why this was not working, I didn't want to risk over looking something simply as that. At the point of writing this email, I have started the install process over again and have basically so far done the following: - booted from Live / Netinst 2009.08 CD. - loaded raid1 modiles via "modprobe raid1". - user 'cfdisk' utility to partition /dev/sda & /dev/sdb. - created the RAID 1 mirror partition which will be assigned to /home mount point. - I allowed the RAID1 mirror to even finish synchronizing before moving forward (even though the Wiki indicates that I can move forward during the sync process) # cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [raid1] md0 : active raid1 sdb3[1] sda3[0] 650568128 blocks [2/2] [UU] unused devices: <none> - I removed the default /etc/mdadm.conf file after I created my RAID1 partition and updated it with my current RAID1 configuration. # cat /etc/mdadm.conf ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=[snip] - run /arch/setup - configure network, mirrors, & disks. - install base packages Now I am to the point on the install where I need to 'Configure System' after the 'Package Selection' menu. - I basically leave the 'rc.conf' file alone. I leave the default 'hostname' since I don't care about that right now and by default 'LVM=no' since I am not using LVM, just RAID. - I check out my /etc/fstab configuration and I have exactly what you see below (minus anything that was commented out) none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0 none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 /dev/md0 /home ext3 defaults 0 1 /dev/sda1 /boot ext3 defaults 0 1 /dev/sda2 / ext3 defaults 0 1 /dev/sdb1 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/sdb2 /etc ext3 defaults 0 1 Everything on top looks fine to me except I don't know what the first two entries are but everything below that point is exactly how I formated and partition the two disks on my system. I then edit the 'mkinitcpio.conf' file. Here I only add 'mdadm' to 'HOOKS' list as shown below: HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata mdadm filesystems" Everything else except HOOKS in that file from what I can see is either blank or commented out completely. I then continue with the 'System Configuration' menu: - Skip '/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf' - Configure '/etc/resolv.conf' - Configure '/etc/hosts*' - Skip /etc/locale.gen - Skip /etc pacman.conf - Skip /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist - Set root password - DONE It then rebuilds initcpio images and I can see it's using the 'mdadm' hook I added in the config. Now it's time for option 7 'Install Bootlader' - I select Grub. - It tells me, "Before installing GRUB, you must review the config file. You will be put into the editor. After you save your changes and exit the editor, you can install Grub. BELOW is the config file it presents me: ################################################################## timeout 5 default 0 color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue # (0) Arch Linux title Arch Linux root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uid/2fbe575b-7fef-4350-9398-d69c3d550de2 ro initrd /kernel26.img # (1) Arch Linux title Arch Linux Fallback root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uid/2fbe575b-7fef-4350-9398-d69c3d550de2 ro initrd /kernel26-fallback.img ################################################################## That looks fine to me I guess but I don't really know too much about GRUB. Once I exit 'vi' from the Grub config. I am asked where to load the Grub bootloader. The first option is /dev/sda and I select that for the MBR rather than /dev/sdb, /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2, /dev/md0. I get a message "GRUB was successfully installed" and press OK. I exit install and press reboot as prompted. When the system reboots, GRUB loads fine and I select the default option and then I get a bunch of flowing text on the screen and here is what I can see as maybe being valuable: :: Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit IP-Config: no devices to configure Waiting 0 s before mounting root device... kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds EXT3-fs: mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly. INIT: version 2.86 booting INIT: No initab file found Enter runlevel: Sadly my keyboard is not working anymore after I select my Grub option from the reboot. Any thoughts?

On Wed, 2009-10-28 at 15:24 -0400, Baho Utot wrote:

Carlos Williams wrote:

[putolin]

...

:: Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit IP-Config: no devices to configure Waiting 0 s before mounting root device... kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds EXT3-fs: mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly. INIT: version 2.86 booting INIT: No initab file found

This means that grub/kernel can not find/read the root file system, the kernel needs to past control to init and it can not find /etc/inittab

From your grub menu.lst file

kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uid/2fbe575b-7fef-4350-9398-d69c3d550de2 ro

try changing to

kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro

Are you sure that /dev/sda2 is your root filesystem?

I agree, with /dev/md0 being your home directory there should not be any kernel panic even if it's not being properly mounted at boot. It sounds like there is another issue going on. Try the suggestion above for grub and I didn't notice you mentioning you'd added md_mod and raid1 to the MODULES list in your rc.conf file either. You will need to do that.

Yes, no matter where you mount a raid partition to, you will necessarily need the raid modules loaded. Accessing hardware requires drivers. Jackson On Tue, 2009-12-01 at 11:25 -0500, Carlos Williams wrote:

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 9:19 AM, toomanymirrors wrote:

...

I agree, with /dev/md0 being your home directory there should not be any kernel panic even if it's not being properly mounted at boot. It sounds like there is another issue going on. Try the suggestion above for grub and I didn't notice you mentioning you'd added md_mod and raid1 to the MODULES list in your rc.conf file either. You will need to do that.

If I have my system configured as follows:

/dev/sda1 = /boot (bootable) /dev/sda2 = / /dev/sda3 = RAID

/dev/sdb1 = swap /dev/sdb2 = /var /dev/sdb3 = RAID

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3

Once that is done, since I am not using RAID on anything but my /home partition, do I need to add 'md_mod' & 'raid1' in the rc.conf section? Is this a requirement because the Wiki mentions nothing about it...

On Wed, 2009-12-02 at 10:30 -0500, Carlos Williams wrote:

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 3:11 PM, toomanymirrors wrote:

...

Yes, no matter where you mount a raid partition to, you will necessarily need the raid modules loaded. Accessing hardware requires drivers. Jackson

So in my rc.conf file, do I need them in any specific order or that does not matter?

*****************

MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes" #MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated MODULES=(md_mod raid1)

*****************

Does that look correct?

Looks good. Does it not work? Jackson