Can't Install 'buntu 13.04 on External HDD via eSATA

[TheFu]

Hi Oldfred, I'm pretty good with mdadm stuff. That usually means JBOD setups and all the RAID happens in software. No RAID drivers, nothing but individual disks are seen by the OS, then the mdadm program is used to put those disks together into RAID0 thru 10 configurations.

I don't think JBOD is what the OP was using.

I think he has an external array using eSATA-MP connector - it is unclear to me where the RAID is happening - on the external array or using a built-in MB RAID. It doesn't appear to be a FakeRAID, so I'm inclined to think the RAID is happening external to the MB.

Or I could be completely wrong. I get confused sometimes and the format of the data provided so far is difficult to read. A clear description of the setup would help me draw a mental picture. I don't have that yet.

[DeadlyOats]

The RAID is in the Vantec external HDD enclosure. The RAID is built and configured in the external enclosure. It's a JMicron SATA RAID controller built into the external HDD enclosure, outside of the motherboard's control. You have to flip physical switches on the enclosure body to configure the RAID.

It is connected to the mobo via eSATA. Windows7 sees the RAID. 'buntu cannot see the RAID, but it can't see the individual drives in the external enclosure either. I'm starting to think it's the eSATA controller on the motherboard that 'buntu can't see, a Marvell SE9120 SATA controller on an ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 mobo.

Is there a way to verify this?

I have to get some sleep. I've been awake all night and need sleep. I'll try installing Kubuntu onto the RAID via USB, to see if 'buntu can see the RAID via USB. But right now, I need sleep. Thanks for your help so far, please bear with me a bit longer.

[TheFu]

The fact that everything works across the
RAID - eSATA-MP - Cable - eSATA-MP - Windows
tells me that it is likely a driver issue or proprietary RAID format.

There was a time when Linux couldn't boot from RAID-anything, so we had to put our /boot partitions on non-RAID storage. Just getting to the point that Ubuntu can see the storage device(s) would be good.

A few commands
- lspci -t
- lspci -k

Please post respecting whitespace and remove non-storage parts.

[redmk2]

You're saying that the problem might be with the Marvell SE9120 eSATA controller on the motherboard, and not the JMicron RAID SATA controller in the Vantec HDD external enclosure? I've tried other mobo settings, turning EFI off and using legacy BIOS. The result was always the same. 'buntu couldn't see the JMicron RAID SATA controller.

With my current CPU, Intel i5, I only have SATA II and USB II capability on this mobo, an ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3. I suppose, I'll try USB II connection for the external enclosure, but I'm afraid that USB II might give me less through put than SATA II. It'll end up being a bottleneck and slow things down for me.... It's not a good long term solution, but I'll try it and see what happens.

This sounds suspiciously like the problem solved here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1822763.

[DeadlyOats]

O.K. Here's what's happened. Thinking that it might be the Marvell SATA controller, I took a look at it and found that it's settings were correct: AHCI, bootable – Yes. Correct for Windows, but – it turns out – not for 'buntu. I changed it to IDE, bootable – Yes. Now 'buntu sees the RAID array, and can create and configure partitions. I switched between EFI and Legacy ROM, as well, to see if that had any bearing on intsallation of 'buntu. It did not. The only issue was the Marvell SATA controller set to AHCI. So, changing that setting to IDE fixed the 'buntu can't see the RAID on eSATA issue.

So, in my case, the problem was that 'buntu could not see Marvell SE9120 SATA controller when set to AHCI mode. Incedentally, in the mobo book, it's Marvell SE9120, but during POST, it showed up as Marvell 88SE91xx. 'buntu, or perhaps Linux in general, probably needs a driver for this Marvell SATA controller in AHCI mode.

Thank you, TheFlu, for your time and help. Some of your comments helped me think this through better and to zone in on the issue, and thanks to you, I also learned some new commands to list hardware on a computer ( lshw (I'll take a look at what lspci – t & k do as well)). Thank you oldfred, for poking your nose in the door and offering your expertise as well.

SOLVED.

On a seperate issue, not only did 'buntu install successfully, but GRUB2 could see my original Win7 install (the one on the internal HDD's, not the one I installed on the external enclosure, as well as the new Win7 install in the external enclosure. GRUB 2 started both Win7's and Kubuntu successfully. So, I guess that the EFI and Win7 boot manager hurdles have been cleared by the FOSS community and seems to be getting Linux to work on the new hardware again - against MS's wishes.... Eat that, MS! Ha! (Or as Homer would say, "In your face, Flanders!") So, my anticipated next problem, how to dualboot 'buntu & Win7 was Solved before I got to that point. Yay!

redmk2, hmmmm..... It does seem very similar. Same problem, but in reverse. He had to change his from IDE to AHCI... But I solved it before you posted, so..... Thanks for posting though. If I hadn't figured it out already, that would have helped.