Dell R310 server with LSI SAS 1068E B3 requires rootdelay to boot

[Robert Kulagowski]

After installation, and rebooting without the install media, by default the administrator gets dumped to busybox.

Typing "exit" allows the boot to continue successfully.

Adding "rootdelay=60" to the grub configuration allows the system to boot automatically.

BUG: Ubuntu Server Edition 12.04 Installer does not recognize that this particular controller requires additional time to initialize the disks and doesn't prepare a correct grub.cfg file.

Proposed solution: add "rootdelay=60" as a default. If the server _does_ need the delay, then having the parameter as a default means that the administrator doesn't have to start searching google during an installation at 3AM. :)

Since servers are typically booted and left running, (as opposed to a desktop system, where booting needs to be as fast as possible), a 60 second delay on a machine that may have an uptime of 600 days seems like a small price to pay.

Also, the Server Admin Guide could probably include a short section regarding this issue.
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/serverguide.pdf

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04

$ apt-cache policy grub2-common
grub2-common:
  Installed: 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
  Candidate: 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
  Version table:
 *** 1.99-21ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.99-21ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: grub2-common 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jun 18 15:36:16 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120424.1)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub2
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]