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Thread: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

  1. #1
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    Nov 2011
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    Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Hello,

    I am a linux newbie, but have used it here and there. I am attempting to build a media server using left over parts found around the office. I am using an OLD AMD Ahtlon 3000+ 64, 2 gb ram, and a micro atx board. I bought 2x2 terabyte drives and was hoping to create a raid setup and install Ubuntu.

    I setup a mirror array in the raid controller bios but when using the standard Ubuntu 11.10 installer, it kept seeing both drives seperately instead of an array. Some googling suggested this silicon image controller is crap and uses drivers in Windows to act like a raid.

    So I decided to try software raid in Linux instead. Researching I found I would need the "alternate" iso which I got and burned to a cd rom. I used the guide here https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/server...tallation.html to setup the partitions.

    Doing more reading and asking around, it seems as though the mbr/boot files cannot be written to a raid partition so I created a third partition at 50 MB for the boot. So each 2 TB drive has three partitions- boot, swap, and file. I raid the swap and file together and leave the 50 MB ext4 /boot alone. I also tried "biosgrub". On the ext I mounted it to /boot and flagged it as bootable. That does not show in the picture below.

    However, as soon as I get to the step to install grub it fails. I have attached a picture of my partition setup and the error when installing Grub.

    Can someone point me to where I have gone wrong?
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by shaxs; November 11th, 2011 at 09:16 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    grub failing for me too. read somewhere uninstalling grub-pc and installing old "grub" might fix it, but how do I do that? apt-get isn't available from the provided shell.

  3. #3
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    Sep 2008
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Since nobody else has taken a crack at this, I'll give it a shot. I've been running a RAID-based storage box for a couple of releases of Ubuntu, but that's about my only qualification. Caveat emptor

    First thing I'm noticing from your second photo is that grub is trying to install on /dev/sdb. Is that your primary boot device?

    Also, when setting up the partitions (first photo), you should choose either sda1 or sdb1, then select "Mount as" and choose "/boot".

  4. #4
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Sorry I cannot help, but just wanted to say I have also spent more hours that I can count trying to do this with 11.10, with no luck.

    There are many other forum posts, and launchpad bugs open to suggest we are not alone.
    - --
    Rod, UK

  5. #5
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    Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Do you have gpt or msdos partition table on your disks? The flag bios_grub is used only for gpt tables. For msdos you don't need to set any flag, maybe the standard boot flag because some board refuse to boot if there is no boot flag set. Otherwise linux doesn't need it and doesn't use it.

    Try installing grub2 to the raid device itself, like /dev/mapper/stuff, not on a specific disk /dev/sda or /dev/sdb. Failing that, try /dev/sda and then /dev/sdb.

    Usually I think it should be on the raid device, to allow booting if one disk fails. Imagine if installing on /dev/sdb worked and tomorrow that disk fails. Even though your raid1 array should work with one disk failed, how will it boot?
    So you either have it on the array or on the MBR of both disks.

    And the other comment is right, there doesn't seem to be a mount point /boot set for your boot partition.

    PS. msdos tables work with up to 2TB disks, or so I've read. Since you have 2TB disks I would rather use msdos tables and not the new gpt system. The old way is proven. Especially if you don't have much experience with gpt (which I don't for example).
    Last edited by darkod; November 15th, 2011 at 01:27 AM.
    Darko.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit

  6. #6
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    For me, with the partitioning shown in the attached image. I can at the end of the install take the option to install Grub to MBR, it selects and appears to install Grub to /sda and /sdb disks.
    Install finishes without error, but on reboot, I just get:

    error: no such disk.
    grub rescue>

    I have tried having a separate partition on both disks just for boot - sized 1mb. Same results.

    Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


    ============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================

    => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    for on this drive.
    => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    for on this drive.

    sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

    File system: linux_raid_member
    Boot sector type: -
    Boot sector info:

    sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

    File system: Extended Partition
    Boot sector type: -
    Boot sector info:

    sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

    File system: swap
    Boot sector type: -
    Boot sector info:

    sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

    File system: linux_raid_member
    Boot sector type: -
    Boot sector info:

    sdb2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

    File system: Extended Partition
    Boot sector type: -
    Boot sector info:

    sdb5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

    File system: swap
    Boot sector type: -
    Boot sector info:

    ============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================

    Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

    Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

    Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

    /dev/sda1 * 2,048 101,562,367 101,560,320 fd Linux raid autodetect
    /dev/sda2 101,564,414 117,229,567 15,665,154 5 Extended
    /dev/sda5 101,564,416 117,229,567 15,665,152 fd Linux raid autodetect


    Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

    Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

    Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

    /dev/sdb1 * 2,048 101,562,367 101,560,320 fd Linux raid autodetect
    /dev/sdb2 101,564,414 117,229,567 15,665,154 5 Extended
    /dev/sdb5 101,564,416 117,229,567 15,665,152 fd Linux raid autodetect


    "blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

    Device UUID TYPE LABEL

    /dev/loop0 squashfs
    /dev/sda1 df8884a1-5bb5-f114-2e2e-c5eb4259330f linux_raid_member RodsW510:0
    /dev/sda5 e270d411-a627-48c1-8537-d34c379301e8 swap
    /dev/sdb1 df8884a1-5bb5-f114-2e2e-c5eb4259330f linux_raid_member RodsW510:0
    /dev/sdb5 a8dc2a96-5713-4a73-8e1d-dfd2606c8de4 swap

    ================================ Mount points: =================================

    Device Mount_Point Type Options

    /dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
    /dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)


    ========= Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive: =========

    sdc sdd sde sdf sdg sdh sdi sdj

    =============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

    unlzma: Decoder error
    unlzma: Decoder error
    Code:
    ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
    
    Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x000ba3d5
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1   *        2048   101562367    50780160   fd  Linux raid autodetect
    /dev/sda2       101564414   117229567     7832577    5  Extended
    /dev/sda5       101564416   117229567     7832576   fd  Linux raid autodetect
    
    Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60022480896 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders, total 117231408 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x0002d56f
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sdb1   *        2048   101562367    50780160   fd  Linux raid autodetect
    /dev/sdb2       101564414   117229567     7832577    5  Extended
    /dev/sdb5       101564416   117229567     7832576   fd  Linux raid autodetect
    ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
    - --
    Rod, UK
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by mardibloke; November 16th, 2011 at 11:23 PM.

  7. #7
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    @mardibloke
    For RAID0 you need to have a separate /boot partition outside the array. As far as I know it can't work otherwise. I guess it has to do with raid0 writing the data half on one disk and half on the other and the boot files can't handle that.

    So, in your place I would start all over, delete the current partitions shown on your image and create:
    sda
    512MB ext4 partition, mount point /boot
    approx 52GB raid partition
    8GB swap (no need to be in the raid, there are ways to use both together from the other disk, but you can configure it as raid0 too if you want)

    sdb
    512MB ext4 partition, no mount point (you can't have two /boot)
    approx 52GB raid
    8GB swap (raid or not, depended what you decided as above)

    This should work out fine. The only thing I am not sure is whether you install the bootloader to the raid device /dev/mapper/etc or to /dev/sda. Try first /dev/sda since it's software raid not sure if the bios sees the /dev/mapper/etc.
    Darko.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit

  8. #8
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Thanks will give that a try now.

    - --
    Rod, UK

  9. #9
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Does screen shot match what you have explained?

    sdb1 is not mounted.
    - --
    Rod, UK
    Attached Images Attached Images

  10. #10
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    Re: Ubuntu 11.10 installation using Software raid having issues installing grub

    Quote Originally Posted by mardibloke View Post
    Does screen shot match what you have explained?

    sdb1 is not mounted.
    - --
    Rod, UK

    Yeap.
    Darko.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit

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