[arch-general] Installing Arch Linux w/ RAID

[Carlos Williams]

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Phillip Smith <arch-general at fukawi2.nl> 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?