12.04 LT live CD Grub fails on SATA Fake Raid 0 systems

[Barry Kumnick]

12.04 LTS Live CD Grub install still fails on SATA fake Raid 0 systems - even when using GParted to create and format the RAID partitions prior to launching the installer.

https://help.ubunto.com/community/FakeRaidHowTo needs an update for 12.04 installs. The fake raid GRUB bugs are STILL NOT FIXED!

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: ubiquity 2.10.16
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.315
Date: Fri Jul 13 15:29:06 2012
InstallCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[PsYcHoK9 (psychok9)]

I've the same problem.
Ubuntu 10.04 desktop install flawlessy on my Intel fake Raid disks, but 12.04 Ubiquity see all disks separated and I can't install Ubuntu anymore.

[Barry Kumnick (barry-kumnick)]

I got this working eventually after trying every combination of install
settings. The "trick" is to first create your logical installation
partitions in an extended partition using the gparted application on the
live CD from inside an Ubuntu 12.04 live CD session. Make sure you do not
format the swap partition, but do set its file system type to linux-swap.
Use gparted to format the other Ubuntu logical partitions to ext4. In
addition, (and this is critical), in the installer, set the boot device to
the root partition of the ENTIRE fake raid volume. For example, on my
system that is /dev/mapper/isw_ccifjiiifa_RAID-0_LinuxFlat_1TB_striped.
(The part of the volume name after "isw_" will vary depending on your raid
setup). This is necessary because the installer installs grub on that
logical disk in place of the Windows boot loader, creates its own boot
menu, and then adds an entry to that boot menu that allows you to select
Windows 7 if you want to dual boot into Win 7. It seems it is no longer
possible to use a different logical partition for installation of the grub
boot menu and then modify Windows boot menu to point to grub. Again, on
Ubuntu 12.04 fake raid, it seems Grub will only install successfully if you
use the RAID map that represents the ENTIRE RAID volume for the installer's
boot device setting.

It is also VERY IMPORTANT not to use the partition manager built into the
12.04 installer to do any partitioning or formatting on your fake-raid
volume. Use gparted from inside a live CD session to do all fake RAID
partitioning and formatting BEFORE starting the install from inside the
live-CD session. The installer's partition manager does not correctly
interpret fake raid partition tables and it will corrupt your RAID
partition table if you have it do anything at all. (It will duplicate all
the partition table entries, creating more than four physical partitions,
which then become inaccessible. The only way I found to recover from this
state is to delete the duplicated logical partitions and the entire
extended partition using gparted error recovery from a live-CD session and
restart the install from the beginning. If you try this installation, be
sure you back up everything on your RAID volume first, because any mistake
on your part could result in the loss of all data on your RAID volume.

On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 3:37 PM, PsYcHoK9 <email address hidden> wrote:

> I've the same problem.
> Ubuntu 10.04 desktop install flawlessy on my Intel fake Raid disks, but
> 12.04 Ubiquity see all disks separated and I can't install Ubuntu anymore.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1024567
>
> Title:
> 12.04 LT live CD Grub fails on SATA Fake Raid 0 systems
>
> Status in “grub-installer” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> 12.04 LTS Live CD Grub install still fails on SATA fake Raid 0 systems
> - even when using GParted to create and format the RAID partitions
> prior to launching the installer.
>
> https://help.ubunto.com/community/FakeRaidHowTo needs an update for
> 12.04 installs. The fake raid GRUB bugs are STILL NOT...

[Andy Carver (6-andy-t)]

Any solutions?
Appeared on
HP ProLiant DL160 Gen8