md array not loading on boot - 8.04

[ScottRose]

My mdadm.conf file is now :

DEVICE partitions
ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=dabb207f:fbc82719:f7353090:c805d08f
ARRAY /dev/md1 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=782f31fa:1ce094da:f22c7d85:8af54e96

Maybe the "partitions" line helps? Good luck.

Thanks Alastair, but I'm afraid my mdadm.conf looked just like that (with just md0 and my own UUID, of course) at some point when it wasn't working..

Unfortunately, I got my LILO "fixed", but now I get..

"checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (bad gzip magic numbers); looks like and initrd"

..during boot. ::sigh:: Someone reported a similar problem (my initramfs image got bigger when I added md and raid1 to modules): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/ha...lo/+bug/221664

I added large-memory to my lilo.conf, ran lilo with no errors, rebooted and got the same message (at which boot halts). I was able to gunzip the initramfs image with no errors.

I tried re-creating initrd.img-2.6.24-23-server (no errors on creation), but same deal:

update-initramfs -c -v -k 2.6.24.23-server

Rolled back to my old initrd.img-2.6.24-23-server, and still getting the error.

I'm assuming I've now f'd something up in my lilo.conf. lilo.conf points to /initrd.img which is symlinked to the correct /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-server .

Sorry for being so verbose here, but I'm hoping that once this is solved the thread might help someone going down the same path as myself.

[ScottRose]

SOLVED!

I just booted straight through, and had all of my volumes online and correctly mounted.

I just don't know why it was solved.

The last thing I had done before completely breaking my boot sequence was add md to /etc/initramfs/modules and run update-initramfs-u . That broke the system.

I restored a backup of initrd.img-2.6.24-23-server and rebooted, but had not re-run lilo (so it did not work).

I re-ran lilo, rebooted, and now am OK.

The problem I have with this is that I'm [AFAIK] back to a condition where the md array previously did not load -- but it does now!

Anyone have any ideas on what I did to solve this????

Here are some configs and outputs that may be helpful.. This is the working state:

Note: the LILO mbr is on /dev/sda . My BIOS explicitly defines that /dev/sdc should be first, both in boot order and "disk order" (two different settings).

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7b211aea

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x39ee015c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/sdc: 249.3 GB, 249376538624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30318 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1           9       72261   de  Dell Utility
/dev/sdc2              10         271     2104515    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc3           29096       30318     9823747+   5  Extended
/dev/sdc4   *         272       29095   231528780   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/sdc5           29096       30318     9823716   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/md0: 1000.2 GB, 1000204795904 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 244190624 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7b211aea

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

blkid

/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01--root: UUID="ee65919c-f4a6-47f5-b364-50ee440bca53" TYPE="ext3" SEC_TYPE="ext2"
/dev/mapper/vg01-lv02--vm: UUID="7cd2f57c-57b9-4804-b44a-99ad2ed8bba6" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda: UUID="ae9f25ec-45ab-c596-3dfb-bfe71d19cdde" TYPE="mdraid"
/dev/sdb: UUID="ae9f25ec-45ab-c596-3dfb-bfe71d19cdde" TYPE="mdraid"
/dev/sdc1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DellUtility" UUID="07D9-050F" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdc2: LABEL="OS" UUID="07D9-050F" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdc4: UUID="8SiUaM-fbj2-5Pgo-y0TC-54tx-zKi8-Gl3gfC" TYPE="lvm2pv"
/dev/sdc5: TYPE="swap" UUID="7aeff811-9401-4f96-97ac-b09c525f333c"
/dev/md0: UUID="T2Ioi2-0U2V-paRM-WTlA-DbPe-G2ZZ-fFSMf1" TYPE="lvm2pv"
/dev/mapper/vg02-lv03--vm: UUID="3f9f7227-fcf7-4fc7-9dfa-6b47f57e5a57" TYPE="ext3"

ls -l /dev/mapper

total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root  10, 63 2009-05-24 15:30 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 254,  0 2009-05-24 15:30 vg01-lv01--root
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 254,  1 2009-05-24 15:30 vg01-lv02--vm
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 254,  2 2009-05-24 15:30 vg02-lv03--vm

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-05-24 15:30 07D9-050F -> ../../sdc2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2009-05-24 15:30 3f9f7227-fcf7-4fc7-9dfa-6b47f57e5a57 -> ../../mapper/vg02-lv03--vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-05-24 15:30 7aeff811-9401-4f96-97ac-b09c525f333c -> ../../sdc5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2009-05-24 15:30 7cd2f57c-57b9-4804-b44a-99ad2ed8bba6 -> ../../mapper/vg01-lv02--vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 2009-05-24 15:30 ee65919c-f4a6-47f5-b364-50ee440bca53 -> ../../mapper/vg01-lv01--root

cat /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

DEVICE /dev/sda /dev/sdb

CREATE owner=root group=disk mode=0660 auto=yes

HOMEHOST <system>

MAILADDR root

ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=ec259fae:96c5ab45:e7bffb3d:decd191d devices=/dev/sda,/dev/sdb

mdadm --detail /dev/md0

/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90.03
  Creation Time : Thu May 21 11:52:53 2009
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 976762496 (931.51 GiB 1000.20 GB)
  Used Dev Size : 976762496 (931.51 GiB 1000.20 GB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Sun May 24 15:31:47 2009
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : ec259fae:96c5ab45:e7bffb3d:decd191d (local to host hm-vm01)
         Events : 0.6

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8        0        0      active sync   /dev/sda
       1       8       16        1      active sync   /dev/sdb

cat /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/mapper/vg01-lv01--root
UUID=ee65919c-f4a6-47f5-b364-50ee440bca53   /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/mapper/vg01-lv02--vm
/dev/vg01/lv02-vm  /opt/vm-disks/01 ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sdb5
/dev/sdb5  none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
#/dev/mapper/vg01-lv03--vm
/dev/vg02/lv03-vm  /opt/vm-disks/02 ext3   relatime     0       2

cat /etc/lilo.conf

boot=/dev/sdc
large-memory

map=/boot/map

delay=20

default=Linux

image=/vmlinuz
        label=Linux
        read-only
#       restricted
#       alias=1
        append="root=/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01--root  "
        initrd=/initrd.img

image=/vmlinuz.old
        label=LinuxOLD
        read-only
        optional
#       restricted
#       alias=2
        append="root=/dev/mapper/vg01-lv01--root  "
        initrd=/initrd.img.old

Thanks for reading.. ;)

[alastair]

Nothing jumps out at me, but it's late and it's been years since I even thought about LILO as a boot loader. I hope you figure it out, but make sure you've got back-ups I think ...

[ScottRose]

Ubuntu Server (6.06-8.10 AFAIK) uses LILO by default on a single-OS system (as most servers are apt to be). I don't even remember if GRUB is an option in the install UI.

I give the installer image credit though; it was able to mount my root partition every time in rescue mode.

Backups? What are those??

Seriously though, I don't think this will ever be a data loss issue. More of a descriptor problem [knocks on wood].

Fortunately the 2 VMs that I'm running on this machine thus far are brand new and they hold ~200GB of data just copied from an old Windows server. Fortunately I didn't wipe the disks on the old server (I learned a loonng time ago to leave that part until absolute last ) so I wasn't too rattled by the whole experience..