Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid

[David Tomlin]

Impact: dmraid installation is entirely broken in Lucid.

Development branch: For the time being, an upstream patch has been reverted in Maverick: see comment 84 and http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/maverick/parted/maverick/annotate/head:/debian/patches/fix-dmraid-regression.patch; however, in future (probably in maverick) we'll fix this differently by switching to the new naming scheme for device-mapper devices, which has more consistent support in upstream code. Such an invasive change would not be appropriate in Lucid - for one, it would require changes to grub2.

Patch: https://code.launchpad.net/+branch/ubuntu/lucid/parted

TEST CASE: Install Ubuntu on a DM-RAID system using (a) the Ubuntu desktop CD and (b) the Ubuntu server CD. Verify that it succeeds. Note that this requires respins of CD images to test effectively; Colin Watson will arrange for sample daily builds not long after this update is processed.

Regression potential: This change is isolated to code dealing with device-mapper devices, so installations on ordinary hard disks should be unaffected. However, I think it would be a good idea to regression-test installations on LVM and software RAID (as distinct from DM-RAID), as those follow the same code path and may be affected.

Original report follows:

Binary package hint: dmraid

Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1) and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails stating it could not create a filesystem.

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386 (20100419.1)
Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Beta 2 had a serious bug with dmraid that has been fixed. This may be
caused by the same issue. Can you try again with the release candidate?

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Will do. I'll report how my install goes immediately after.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

No luck with the release candidate. I'm not doing anything special. I create my "fakeraid" set with the SIL 3124 controller, then I boot to the Ubuntu Server 10.04 cd. I select all the default options until it get to Detect Disks. It successfully detects my RAID 1 and asks if I'd like to activate it. I select yes and am then presented with my 250GB RAID 1 set. I select Guided Partioning and tell it to use the entire disk (no lvm or encryption). It then creates a default partition scheme with just root and swap. I select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk". I'm then asked to confirm the changes to the disk. Once I select yes, I get a red screen with an error message stating "Failed to create a filesystem. The ext4 file system creation in partition #1 of Serial ATA RAID sil_bgaebjaafgbg (mirror) failed"

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

I also get the exact same behavior with the onboard raid controller on a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H motherboard using the exact same steps as above.

I also tried other distributions to verify it wasn't hardware and both OpenSuse and CentOS detected and installed succesfully, so it's definitley not hardware related.

Thanks so much for your input on this.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Just some more info. I tried using both the Desktop and Server Release Candidate disks.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Here's what was going on in the syslog from the activation of the raid until it failed to create the partition. Maybe this is an Ubiquity bug and not a dmraid bug????

Apr 23 03:32:51 ubuntu activate-dmraid: Serial ATA RAID disk(s) detected. If this was bad, boot with 'nodmraid'.
Apr 23 03:32:51 ubuntu activate-dmraid: Enabling dmraid support.
Apr 23 03:32:51 ubuntu dmraid-activate: ERROR: Cannot retrieve RAID set information for sil_bgaebjaafgbg
Apr 23 03:32:51 ubuntu dmraid-activate: ERROR: Cannot retrieve RAID set information for sil_bgaebjaafgbg
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: tune2fs
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: :
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: Bad magic number in super-block
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity:
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: while trying to open /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: #015
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu partman: Error running 'tune2fs -l /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg'
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: tune2fs
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: :
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: Bad magic number in super-block
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity:
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: while trying to open /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: #015
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu partman: Error running 'tune2fs -l /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg'
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: tune2fs
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: :
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: Bad magic number in super-block
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity:
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: while trying to open /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: #015
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu ubiquity: Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
Apr 23 03:32:52 ubuntu partman: Error running 'tune2fs -l /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg'
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity: tune2fs
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity: :
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity: Bad magic number in super-block
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity:
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity: while trying to open /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity: #015
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity: Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu partman: Error running 'tune2fs -l /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg'
Apr 23 03:32:53 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: switched to page partman
Apr 23 03:33:05 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: debconffilter_done: ubi-partman (current: ubi-partman)
Apr 23 03:33:05 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: Step_before = stepPartAuto
Apr 23 03:33:05 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: switched to page usersetup
Apr 23 03:33:22 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: debconffilter_done: ubi-usersetup (current: ubi-usersetup)
Apr 23 03:33:22 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: Step_before = stepUserInfo
Apr 23 03:33:22 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: filtering out /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg1 as it is to be formatted.
Apr 23 03:33:22 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: filtering out /dev/mapper/sil_bgaebjaafgbg5 as it is to be formatted.
Apr 23 03:33:22 ubuntu ubiquity[2853]: debconffilter_done: ubi-migrationassistant (current: ubi-migrationassistant)
Apr 23 ...

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Yes, that looks like a bug in ubiquity or partman to me. It seems to be trying to use the whole disk at first rather than partitions on it, then can't find the partitions later. Reassigning.

[Raúl Montes (raulmt)]

I have exact same problem with AMD 785GM-M chipset with RAID 1. In Ubuntu 9.10 it works fine, but on 10.04 Beta 2 and release candidate it fails…

[Kitagua (matthias-wuerthele)]

Tried to install rc on a raid 0 system (windows 7 already installed). It detected the fake raid as expected but after clicking on install it complains that it was not able to create file system on specified disk. (I have a NVIDIA Fake RAID)

[Moshe Ortov (jim-networksystemssolutions)]

I've tried to install 10.04 RC on an nVidia RAID5 (fakeraid using dmraid) via alternate and main install and both fail to load any dmraid drivers at all (none - not even RAID0/1). dmraid seems to be completely broken in the RC - the installer offers to activate it but nothing is detected afterwards and a manual attempt reports missing modules. Also, as per previous Ubuntu versions, the dmraid-activate seems to mess up the raid45 driver stuff anyway - I always have the manually install the modules during installation and then edit dmraid-activate to change the module load to dm-raid4-5 and the rebuild the initrd before rebooting otherwise the install is messed up. There are various past bug reports on this so I'm not going to repeat them as it's been reported enough times already without me duplicating it further.

I saw one posting (elsewhere) suggesting just using software raid - while that's probably a fair suggestion, the dmraid really should work when it is detecting the fakeraid controller is there and offering it.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

I love Ubuntu, but I have a feeling they're going to be inundated with all the gripes concerning fakeraid from people after the official release in 3 days. This is not a knock at all, but it kills me that CentOS, Fedora, and Opensuse all detect my fakeraid and install on it just fine right out of the box, but my fav distribution can't!!! :(

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Just tried to install using the latest daily build (4/27) and got the same result. I've tried on 2 different machines each with a different fakeraid controller. As usual Ubuntu detects both controllers and the fakeraid set on each, but fails during the format procedure stating it can't "Failed to create a file system". I'm surprised the LTS version will be released without working support for fakeraid.

[Evan (ev)]

Can you please run the installer in debug mode (`ubiquity -d` from the live CD desktop after clicking on "Try Ubuntu"), then run `apport-collect 568050` once you've reproduced the bug.

Thanks!

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

No problem. I'll do this tonight and post back immediately.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

apport information

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

apport information

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

apport information

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

apport information

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

apport information

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

I just uploaded the report you requested for the 1st machine. I'm going to upload the same from my other PC with a different raid controller so you can compare them.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Confirmed, tested rc here and got the same results. Marking as high importance as well since it is a critical problem for some users.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

As you confirmed it I won't send the info on the other machine. Thanks so much for your help! :)

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Sorry I couldn't get this information to you before the actual release. :(

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

This bug effects both the X86 and X64 platforms.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

One more comment, I ran into this using both the Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop images.

[Qboy61 (rixq)]

I agree with David's message #11. I am sad that I can't use Ubuntu either due to failed install on Intel RAID. My failure is identical to David's. Lucid alternate desktop install 32-bit works right up to the point where the RAID array should actively be created. Hopefully there'll be a fix for this soon. Have 4 machines running RAID 1 (not comfortable with loss of data due to drive failure) and I'd like to get Ubuntu Lucid on these machines besides Windows. :-(

[Will Green (greenwc)]

Encountering the same problem on 10.04 X64.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

You can probably work around this issue by manually partitioning first, then installing to the existing partitions. That's what you used to have to do anyhow before Karmic or so.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Hey Phillip. Thanks so much for your help on this, and I will definitely try the workaround. Just one comment though, and please know this is not directly aimed at you Phillip as you've been nothing but helpful, but rather Ubuntu as a whole. As stated above, CentOS, Fedora, and OpenSuse all installed on my fakeraid out of the box with no workarounds, and while I honestly feel neither of those distributions can even somewhat compare to Ubuntu, it seems that Ubuntu is shortchanging users when it comes to fakeraid. In other words, if after the last 3 current distributions we are still having to use workarounds with fakeraid, does that mean it's going to always be that way? I may be wrong, but I don't think fakeraid has ever worked out of the box in Ubuntu. Is this just not a big enough priority for Ubuntu? And as for people who are using fakeraid and may be willing to change from Windows to Ubuntu, I would imaging the first time they discover they can't dual boot with Windows and Ubuntu without what might be a difficult workaround for them to implement depending on their knowledge of linux, they may just give up and go to another distribution which in the end hurts Canonical.

Another thing to note is that the version of CentOS i tried was released in 2007, and still successfully detected and installed on the array. It's hard to swallow that in 2010 Ubuntu still hasn't gotten there.

If this was an old or outdated technology, I could almost understand, but you can hardly find a current motherboard now that doesn't implement fakeraid, and regardless of whether linux software raid is better than fakeraid, fakeraid has its merits too, and I'm sure is used very often as it can be setup much quicker than linux software raid.

That's just my 2 cents, but again I appreciate everything you're doing to try and help us with this. Thanks.

[Aeudian (jbanks-bogdan)]

I also have the same issue on my HP Workstation XW4600 with an HP Mirror (160GB).

The system tries to partition the drive array (which it sees) however it tries to install to PARITION1 which does not exist. When I do an ls on /dev/mapper/ I see ARRAY ARRAYP2 and ARRAYP5; not ARRAYP1 (where it attempts to install).

I booted into Ubuntu 10.04 via CDROM and did an fdisk and created my primary partition and linux swap. I then formatted my primary partition to ext4. I tried to rerun the installer however it wanted to format the partition (which would break it). I rebooted the system and ran the installer again this time setting it to use the existing ext4. I had to add the mount point (/). The installer finished successfully afterwards.

However on boot; it appears that grub fails to load. After the bios boots I receive a blinking cursor. I am bootting back to CD now to check my grub config. I will let you know my results.

[Aeudian (jbanks-bogdan)]

Okay...I figured out my problem. After I did everything above and ran the installed at Step 8 (last step) I did not hit advanced. It had the grub to be installed to /dev/sda (WHICH DOES NOT EXIST). I used the drop down menu and selected /dev/mapper/(array)P1.

The system fully booted and appears to be operational.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Aeudian:

     I have the exact same issue that you did. However I am struggling to get fdisk to work. Whenever i try to list with fdisk -l, nothing shows up. If I try to list with fdisk -l /dev/mapper/(raid1array) it says it cannot open it.

     Can you shed some light on the specifics of using fdisk for this scenario? I have tried using gparted, manually setting up partitions in the installer itself, no luck.

     Thanks!

ps: I completely agree with David Tomlin.

[Aeudian (jbanks-bogdan)]

beamin:

Do "ls -l /dev/mapper/" the results will print out the controller and any paritions currently (indicated by p#).

Make sure you do sudo and do "sudo fdisk /dev/mapper/(array)" with no parition #.

Setup your partitions you will do 2 (or more). On my 160GB Mirror I did P1 as 150GB (linux format 83) as a primary. And I did an extended 10GB as swap (linux format 82).

Once they were made; I wrote the changes and had to reboot. Boot back to the CD and do "ls -l /dev/mapper/" again. It should show P1 and P5 along with the controller.

Then I had to do "sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/(array)(p1)" Make sure you select P1 (parition 1). Again I had to reboot after else the installer wants to format the parition.

Boot back into the CD and when you get to the install part for partitions choose manually. Select the ext4 you created and put a mount point of "/". Uncheck the format box if it checks. When you get to stage 8; make sure you point the grub installer to parition1 NOT /dev/sda.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Aeudian,

Just out of curiosity, how much time would you say you invested on finally being able to get your fakeraid setup to work?

[Aeudian (jbanks-bogdan)]

David,

Probably 2 hours? I tried the install this morning and took about 3 attempts being a work around was discovered.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 4/30/2010 1:42 PM, beamin wrote:
> I have the exact same issue that you did. However I am struggling
> to get fdisk to work. Whenever i try to list with fdisk -l, nothing
> shows up. If I try to list with fdisk -l /dev/mapper/(raid1array) it
> says it cannot open it.
>
> Can you shed some light on the specifics of using fdisk for this
> scenario? I have tried using gparted, manually setting up partitions in
> the installer itself, no luck.

You need to use sudo. Also to get gparted to see the array run sudo
gparted /dev/mapper/(raid1array).

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Thanks a lot guys for your time. I am working right now but will report back later today / this evening with results.

[jay armstrong (jayarmstrong)]

confirming that this happens with the 10.04 final release as well.

10.04 i386 desktop
nvidia geforce 8200 fakeraid

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Just so I can do some planning, is it realistic to think this bug could be fixed soon and implemented in the iso downloads, or will it more than likely be released in an upcoming major update?

[jerico (erich-schommarz)]

Hello Together

Unfortuntatly I'm also facing this problem with the new Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop ISO and Alternate ISO. After trying all possible described ways above I have killed my Fakeraid and installed 10.04 with a Softwareraid. At least I have now my new system back up running. Windows on a second partition is now requirement for me.

[Chris Martin (chris-martin-cc)]

Me too

On a Dell Precision 390.
After the install failed I tried manually using "gparted" of the live CD.. That too fails.
So next I will try using the command line tools

[Obolo (spamer-onlinehome)]

Same here. Intel ICH10R and RAID0. I can install 10.4 on this machine. Its a big fail!

[Aeudian (jbanks-bogdan)]

I did not use gparted to setup my partitions I used fdisk and mkfs and everything works fine; I'm sure gparted would work if you used "sudo gparted /dev/mapper/(array)". If you just open gparted via menu it sees the disks separatelywhich will not work (ie. /dev/sda and /dev/sdb).

You command line is not your strong point try 9.10 CD or another live boot CD (which worked in past) and partition your setup. Then stick in 10.04 for the install.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Yeah the install happens and everything... but when I reboot I just get a blinking cursor like something is happening but it just stays there. Yes I made sure that I installed the boot loader on partition 1 of the RAID array on step 8. Right now I am trying different approaches with what you have already listed above Aeudian in different orders and little variables. If I have any luck I will report back.

I did find that the latest copy of Gparted LIVE off gparted.org detects my array without a hiccup. So that is a tool that I might use later. But right now Im sticking to fdisk and mkfs methods within the 10.04 live environment to exhaust that first.

Im using an ICH5R, on an ASUS p4p800 board, (yea its pretty old I know).

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Jerico could you list methods you used for making softwareraid here? Im assuming you used mdadm? Could you elaborate for us?

Thanks

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Well guys, I got this to work a somewhat different way as I'm using Ubuntu Server. If you can get your hands on a 9.10 server cd, use it to start an install. Once you get to the part where it detects your raid, activate it, and setup your partitions however you like, and then apply your changes. Unlike the red screen you get with the message (can't create a filesystem) in 10.04, 9.10 will successfully create your partitions. After your disk has been partitioned and formatted, stop the 9.10 install.

Now reboot, and start the install with the 10.04 server cd. Again, once you get to the part where it detects your raid, activate it. You'll see the partitions you created before. Reassign their mount points, and format them again if you like. After I did this my install of 10.04 was successful using my fakeraid. However, the installer didn't install grub on my second hard drive. This was a simple fix by simply issuing the command sudo grub-install /dev/sdb for my particular setup. I hope this helps someone who's trying to install Ubuntu Server 10.04 on a fakeraid setup.

I did test by powering the machine off and removing power to one hard drive and then the other to verify it would boot to both, and it was successful.

[jerico (erich-schommarz)]

Hello beamin

Yes, I'm using mdadm. But I have done everything over the gui. Here my process.

1. First I have delete my fakeraid right at the beginning of startup pc
2. Downloaded alternate Ubuntu CD: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#alternate
3. Started from that CD
4. At partition part choose Software Raid and set up your software raid
5. Go on with installation

For additional help maybe the following site can help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID

Like already mentioned. There are some pro and contra between SoftwareRaid and Fakeraid. I'm also not the specialist. Each person has to probably find on it's on out if these is a alternative for him or not. I suppose changing back from SoftwareRaid to Fakeraid as soon the problem is solved is also not so easy or even possible without loosing data.

[Hernan Martinez (chesterx)]

Hi folks

I have the same problem as everyone else in this thread, even worse, I have an Intel Raid 0 with two partitions , one with Windows 7 and the other I reseverd for Ubuntu, so software raid is out of question for me.

1. I had to do exactly that David Tomlin said about using the 9.10 disk, coz my 10.04 desktop disk didnt't format the ex3 partition created in the installation. BUT after copying files, it failed in the end with being Unable do Install GRUB on /dev/sda, and it was supposed to install GRUB on /dev/mapper/my_raid_disk

2. So after being able to install Lucid, i have to manally install GRUB1 with the steps shown here : http://neildecapia.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/dual-booting-windows-7-and-ubuntu-karmic-9-10-on-a-raid-0-array/.

Sigh, wish this was fixed, coz i didnt install 9.10 back then when i got this new Core i7 desktop for I wating that it was fixed by 10.04

[Håkan Wiklund (hakan-wiklund)]

Hi,

I had the same problem as you guys and I found a workaround. I booted up the live cd and opened a terminal where I wrote:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dmraid -ay
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj" already active
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj1" was activated
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj5" was activated
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj6" was activated
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj7" was activated
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj8" was activated
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj9" was activated
RAID set "nvidia_afhibbhj10" was activated

and then I started the installer on the command line using this command:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ubiquity --desktop %k gtk_ui

Now the installation goes through, but for some reason, the installation of the boot sector fails, so the result is a machine that does not even load grub when it is started.

I will have to investigate this further tomorrow.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Håkan,

     This may be what I experience after working with the fakeraid. It won't boot.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Jerico,

     Thanks for your response!

David,

     I am going to play with that method with the Desktop ISOs and see what I can make of it.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Hey Beamin,

Let me know how it works for you!

David

[Nathaniel W. Turner (nturner)]

Perhaps there are several root causes here, or perhaps not, but here's what I'm seeing: If I switch to VT1 after getting the "ext4 file system creation in partition #1 of Serial ATA RAID isw_cebbgjjbbi_Volume0 (string) failed" message, and tail the syslog, I see "partman: Could not stat /dev/mapper/isw_cebbgjjbbi_Volume01 --- No such file or directory". If I then look in /dev/mapper, I see that the device node for partition 1 appears as isw_cebbgjjbbi_Volume0p1.

That is, the dmraid partition entries in /dev/mapper are of the form XpY, while it appears partman is expecting them to be of the form XY (which is how they used to appear in /dev/mapper in prior releases).

[Matt Fair (matt-fair)]

Nathaniel,
What you described is exactly what I have also been experiencing. If I called dmraid it then activated the partition, but it seemed every time I went through he process, it un-activated the dmpartion.

So as a "fix" I tried to install directly to my disk not using my mapper device, but this did not work either. Syslog error I got was:
...
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555661] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 268435416
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555695] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555697] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555699] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 57 54 66 e8 00 00 08 00
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555712] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1465149160
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555747] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555749] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555751] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 57 54 66 e8 00 00 08 00
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.555757] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1465149160
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: asr: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: ddf1: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: ddf1: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: hpt37x: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: hpt45x: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: isw: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: last message repeated 2 times
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: jmicron: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: lsi: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: nvidia: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: pdc: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: last message repeated 48 times
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: sil: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu ubiquity: ERROR: via: reading /dev/sdb[Input/output error]
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575038] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575040] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575043] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 57 54 66 e8 00 00 08 00
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575050] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1465149160
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575096] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575098] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575110] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 57 54 66 e8 00 00 08 00
May 4 03:11:36 ubuntu kernel: [ 976.575116] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1...

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Good find Nathaniel. Unfortunately, I think either Ubiquity or Partman are just really "broken" in the 10.04 release. If you do a google search for Ubuntu 10.04 raid you'll find people having trouble with both fakeraid and software raid.

[Deihmos M (dmars99)]

I am having the exact same problem. It worked fine in 9.10 but not working at all in this version.

[Keith Taylor (keith-supanet)]

Hi guys,

OS: Ubuntu Server 10.4 (64-bit)
Hardware: Silicon Image Products Raid Controller with simple 2 HD mirror+hotswap configuration.

After some fighting with this problem I found a solution (I get similar errors to the above, so won't bore you all with a post of my logs):

The raid device is mapped to /dev/mapper/(raiddevice) and the partitions are named /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p1, /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p2 and /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p5.

However, partman is trying to access the partitions as /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)1, /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)2 and /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)5 and failing.

When it was the time to apply the settings, I openned a shell (Alt-F2) and renamed the files to the correct filenames

mv /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p1 /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)1
mv /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p2 /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)2
mv /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p5 /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)5

Then switched back to the install shell (Alt-F1) and hit continue - the installation continued seamlessly.

I hope this helps.

[lukasfischer (lukasfischer)]

Thanks for the workaround, it worked fine for me for an onboard RAID nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller with desktop system 10.04 and mirroring.

[lukasfischer (lukasfischer)]

sorry, have to take that back. installation worked, but on reboot grub can't find root partition. in busybox i realized that only /dev/mapper/control exists, no raids. i can still boot when i set root=/dev/sda, but also in the started environment there are no /dev/mapper/(raid) devices. seems that i boot from a single drive. How is the fakeraid activated? Is this problem chipset specific (nForce 630a)?

[George Belden (beldenge)]

I'm very new to Ubuntu, and I tried installing in a separate partition on a fakeraid (RAID 1) setup with Windows XP already installed. I first had to resize the full disk XP partition so an "unallocated" partition would be available for Ubuntu. When attempting to install into this partition using the Live CD, I am also having this issue during the last step during installation, telling me it failed to create the filesystem.

First, when I boot from the Live CD, I get the error "The installer encountered an unrecoverable error". No problem here really, because it still loads the desktop and I can run the installer from the icon on the desktop.

The installer correctly recognizes the existing windows partition. It lets me create two partitions in the unallocated space: one for the root directory (31gb), and one for swap space (6gb). I first tried using ext4 for the filesystem, and this failed. I then tried using ext3, and this failed also. Each time I receive the same error message that it failed to create the filesystem.

I guess my question at this point is whether it is just stupid for me to try to install on top of my existing setup (fakeraid with windows already installed) or if this is a legitimate bug?

This is further complicated by my mouse randomly freezing up when I try to use firefox from the Live CD to search forums for workarounds. It only seems to happen when firefox is open for a few minutes, and then my only option is to reboot. I know this is a separate discussion, but it is starting to seem like installing ubuntu will be an insurmountable task for me...

In any case, I'd like to assist in getting this resolved rather than giving up on ubuntu.

[Deihmos M (dmars99)]

George Belden what you are trying to do worked fine with 9.10 but no longer works with this current version.

[Kyle Jones (mutiny32)]

It appears that there is a discrepancy between how performing the 'partprobe' command and performing the 'dmraid -ay' command; specifically the letter "p" added to /dev/mapper/(array) and its trailing partition number.

I think it can be traced back to recent upstream LVM2/libdm changes or an upstream change to dmraid.

[Lee Elenbaas (lee-elenbaas)]

my scenario is slightly different - i upgraded a 9.10 machine to 10.4 - and now it fails to boot altogether
attempts to get to the HD using the 10.4 live dvd failed

it looks like grub loads 10.4 correctly - the 10.4 gets to the point of requesting console login - any attempt to login fails, the gdm also fails.

since on a machine without fakeraid the same upgrade process went smoothly my guess is that the problem is related to this bug

[krutoileshii (krutoileshii)]

Keith. Your work -around worked like a charm for me. Thank you weary much for the. Info saved me hours.

[George Gericke (georgegericke)]

@Keith Taylor: thanks that worked, just to fix grub now
@lukasfischer: i'm having the same problem, have you found the solution?

[Kyle Jones (mutiny32)]

Honestly, I'm surprised that ANY fakeraid installations work. This seems to simply break the ability to install 10.04 on any fakeraid array. I'd consider this to be more of a critical bug, since a LOT of people use fakeraid setups. How it didn't get noticed before release is simply beyond me.

[Bruce (206bruce)]

Thanks to Nathaniel and Keith for figuring this out and the "workaround" / solution.

@George Gericke; you have to install grub manually...via either Live or Alternate install disc. I followed the directions here: http://grub.enbug.org/TestingOnX86

[Morten Lund (m-lund)]

Same problem here - Got thorugh the installation using the hack from Keith. However - can't get grub to work

This is a very serious bug!

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

This is a very serious bug, and again I'm not bashing Ubuntu. Let me make that clear. I LOVE UBUNTU!!! But this bug is beyond ridiculous. I think they should follow the path PCLinux OS just did. They had major bugs in the original release a few weeks ago, and just issued a new point release with fresh ISOs to resolve the issues.

I also really wish this bug would get "Assigned" to someone. The status is still "Unassigned" and it was reported on 4/20.

[lukasfischer (lukasfischer)]

could there be even more bugs than just the wrong naming of the devices? after the manual install (renaming the device names) and attending a long time for initrd to give up waiting for the root filesystem, i realized (pressing tab-tab) that the dmraid utility is not avail in busybox, so no chance to mount real_root (as i previously described, the raid devices in /dev/mapper/ are not there). is this meant to be like this or is the initrd not prepared properly to support fakeraids?

[JustBill (justbill)]

I did what David Tomlin did and it worked fine that way. Not the best for future installs but it gets me to 10.04 LTS for now.

[Alfonso.L. Cominges (comingessp)]

I also love Ubuntu but 10.04LTS version has serious problems with Raid setup. I have an Asus P5Q motherboard with Intel Corporation 82801 SATA RAID Controller. I have two SATA hard drives in Raid 0. I could not install the version 10.04LTS. I have had to install the previous version (Karmic Koala). After updating I went into 10.04lts version. How sad. Sorry my english .... it's terrible ;)

[Kyle Jones (mutiny32)]

I've seen a revert on the dmraid package by Phillip Susi; wondering if it has anything to do with this.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/12/2010 1:43 PM, Kyle Jones wrote:
> I've seen a revert on the dmraid package by Phillip Susi; wondering if
> it has anything to do with this.

Huh? You have? I'm planning on fixing this in time for 10.04.1, but
I've not had time to look at it yet. Based on the comments about the p
being in the device name, I have a pretty good idea of where the problem
is, so hopefully this weekend I'll have it fixed.

[H.i.M (hir-i-mogul-gmail)]

Effects me too.
Its a real shame for Ubuntu.
Who is responsible for such a critical bug? Its known since Beta 2. And no fix was committed until today. This is unbelievable.
user since 6.06.

[Marty Lucich (mar3ty)]

On 5/12/10 11:38 AM, Phillip Susi wrote:
[...]
> Huh? You have? I'm planning on fixing this in time for 10.04.1, but
> I've not had time to look at it yet. Based on the comments about the p
> being in the device name, I have a pretty good idea of where the problem
> is, so hopefully this weekend I'll have it fixed.

FYI after I muddled through the install a couple weekends ago by linking
or renaming stuff under /dev/mapper I ended up with a bootable system.
But the problem that persisted was grub-update (or whatever runs during
system updates) continued to try to write to /dev/sda which is one
element of my RAID5 group. I used the information from a post that
noted there was no /boot/device.map and created one on my system.
That resolved the last issue I was having. So apparently that file is
required for ongoing updates.

I also get screen fulls of messages about "you have a memory leak" but
you probably can't do anything about that.

[Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir (nasr-m-a)]

I also tried the work around (formatting the partitions myself etc) but run into the same problem when trying to reboot into the newly installed system, the raid partitions do not exist in /dev/mapper/ and thus cannot be mounted.

Usually I use software RAID but found that fakeraid gives me better performance with RAID1, so I'll wait until this is fixed, but I just wanted to make it clear that it is not just a problem with the installer failing to format.

[Nige Irwin (irwinnk)]

I have been trying to set up 10.04 X64 (dual boot with win7) on a raid 0 system using the alternate cd. First failure was the partitioning/formating of ext4. Got round this by using 9.10 to set up and format, then using 10.04 for install but it failed to install grub. Thought I would try to install 9.10 X64 and then upgrade but that too fails to install grub.

[Jeremy Wolfe (jw-jeremywolfe)]

Hello. First I'd like to thank you all for giving me a starting point to figure out this problem. I'd also like to let you know how I finally got it solved.

I managed to get 10.04 x86_64 installed and working on my Core2 Quad setup, running a 2-drive striped array on Intel Matrix (fake) RAID. It took me about 8 hours of screwing around and multiple reinstalls to find a solution, even though the solution is actually quite simple.

Here is the process:

1. I found it easiest to boot the install disc into the live CD mode instead of the installer. Contrary to what has been stated in other places, you do NOT need the alternate install disc. It works fine on the regular Desktop disc.

2. When you get into the desktop environment, go ahead and start the installer, go through all the steps, set up your partitions, etc. I created a separate boot partition on my array, but I do not believe that is necessary.

3. When you get to the final step, where it gives you the "Install" button, stop and open a terminal. Pretty much everything you do in it will need root privileges, so go ahead and issue the "sudo -i" command.

4. As has been stated, the installer needs to see /dev/mapper/array_nameN (where array_name is the name the system assigns to your RAID, and N is the partition number) instead of /dev/mapper/array_namepN. So you'll have to cd to /dev/mapper and get those devices in there. I was a little nervous about renaming them, so I just added some symbolic links for all of the partitions. Use "ln -s array_namepN array_nameN" for each partition.

5. As has also been stated, you need to hit the "Advanced" button in the installer and point it to set up GRUB on your array's MBR (note that it should be the name of your array, not one of the partitions). Then go ahead and hit Install. Leave your terminal open, as you will need it again.

6. When installation completes, don't reboot yet. Go back to your terminal. The new install partition will be mounted in /target, but if you made a separate boot partition, it will have been unmounted, so you'll have to re-mount it by issuing "mount /dev/mapper/array_nameN /target/boot". If you didn't make a separate boot partition, you obviously won't have to do this.

7. Issue the following commands to set your terminal's environment to use the new filesystem:
mount --bind /dev /target/dev
mount -t proc /proc /target/proc
mount -t sysfs /sys /target/sys
cp /etc/resolv.conf /target/etc/resolv.conf
chroot /target

8. Run "update-grub" for good measure (not sure if it's really necessary). And here's the key to making this all work: run "apt-get install dmraid". I had assumed that this would already be installed by default because of the many people who use it, but apparently not. Installing this package will update your initrd image with the correct modules to run your fakeraid, and it works fine with GRUB2, even though some people have said you need to install GRUB1.

9. Exit out and reboot into your freshly installed Ubuntu!

Another option that might be easier would be to make your boot partition on a non-RAID drive, but as I don't have any non-RAID drives in my desktop, I wanted to find a solution that didn't require do...

[Konstantinos (konc)]

(Postet originally to Mint's buglist by me, but in case it can help someone, I copy-paste it here)

Finaly, after many hours I came to a workaround that actually works. To anyone interested:
1) Boot with a previous version that works (ex Karmic) and create the desired partitions
2) Boot with Lucid and start installation. Format the partition and set mount point, but do NOT create-delete any partitions.
3) At the last step, choose "Advanced" and select "do not install bootloader". (It wouldn't install anyway, no matter what you choose it just tries to install on /dev/sda).
4) Installation will finish, but do not restart. Open a terminal and let's chroot into our fresh installation.

sudo mkdir /mnt/root
sudo mount /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID3 /mnt/root
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/root/dev
sudo mount -t proc proc /mnt/root/proc
sudo mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/root/sys
sudo mount -t devpts devpts /mnt/root/dev/pts
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/root/etc/resolv.conf
sudo chroot /mnt/root /bin/bash

now there's the key:

ls /dev/mapper

returns corrects results:
 /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID
 /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID1
 /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID3
...

But if you try to execute

grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID

it will fail. (Aaargh I almost smashed the computer with this one..) I finaly discovered that although we can mount and chroot into the installation, not everything is OK with initrd image and dmraid. So, let's create the image again:

apt-get purge dmraid
apt-get install dmraid
grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID
update-grub

You have now a perfectly working fresh installation of Mint 9 or Ubuntu 10.04 ;)

Hope I've helped in any way...

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Thanks,Jeremy.
So far as I can tell, I have the same problem, it cannot create the file system. Either I don't know what to rename, or the name is not the only problem.

I have a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with an Intel Core i7-860 processors, Serial ATA II Raid 1 with dual 750 GB Hard Drives. I've been trying to set up a dual-boot. Windows 7 did its, what I understand is usual, trick to put the system page file smack in the middle of its partition, so I am limited in how small I can make the Windows partition.

I'm looking for the file to rename (to change pvolume_number to volume_number, but I don't find anything with p in it. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Thanks. If you have advice, I'd appreciate it.

root@ubuntu:~# dmraid -s
*** Group superset isw_bifgdfbbc
--> Active Subset
name : isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0
size : 1465143552
stride : 128
type : mirror
status : ok
subsets: 0
devs : 2
spares : 0

root@ubuntu:/dev/mapper# ls -a
. isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume03
.. isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume01 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume05
control isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume02 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume06

[Jeremy Wolfe (jw-jeremywolfe)]

When are you looking in /dev/mapper? The names are usually correct until you get past the partitioning part of the installer, at which point it adds the "p" into the names, right before the partition number. So you can't really add the symlinks until you get to that point in the installer.

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Thanks, Jeremy, I am looking after it failed to create the file system.

The screen says, Ready to instal (step 8 of 8)l:

If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks.
Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.

The partition tables of the following devices are changed:
 Serial ATA RAID isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (mirror)

The following partitions are going to be formatted:
 partition #5 of Serial ATA RAID isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (mirror) as ext4
 partition #6 of Serial ATA RAID isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (mirror) as swap

I clicked on advanced and turned off install the boot loader (I have tried it both ways).
Then I clicked install.

I got this message: The ext4 file system creation in partition #5 of Serial ATA RAID isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (mirror) failed.

OK. Now I see the ps.

I made the links and clicked install. I set the boot loader to load in isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0

A few seconds later the entire installer seems to have completely disappeared.

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 320 2010-05-16 13:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4100 2010-05-16 13:14 ..
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 59 2010-05-16 00:18 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2010-05-16 13:17 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume01 -> isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2010-05-16 13:17 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume02 -> isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2010-05-16 13:17 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume03 -> isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2010-05-16 13:18 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume04 -> isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2010-05-16 13:18 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume05 -> isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2010-05-16 13:18 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume06 -> isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p6
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 1 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 2 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 3 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 4 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p4
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 5 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p5
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 6 2010-05-16 13:14 isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0p6

/target has only etc and media

root@ubuntu:/dev/mapper# ls -al /target
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 80 2010-05-16 13:20 .
drwxr-xr-x 34 root root 360 2010-05-16 13:20 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 2010-05-16 13:20 etc
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 40 2010-05-16 13:20 media

After waiting about 15 minutes, I had a look at gparted. It still lists the 339.01 GB that is not part of windows as unallocated.

Does this raise any new thoughts for you? I appreciate your help. Would I be better served by going to Ubuntu 9.10?

Thanks,
Herb

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

I have traced this to an upstream change in parted that caused it to insert the 'p' in the device name. Standby for patch and a test package in my PPA. If some of you who experienced this issue could test and give feedback, it should be uploaded as an SRU and make it into the 10.04.1 respin.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Those having this issue, please try running the following in a terminal before starting the installer and report whether this fixes it:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:psusi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade libparted0

That should upgrade you to -ubuntu6 of libparted0 from my PPA and then you should be able to install. I tested this myself and it works for me.

[JustBill (justbill)]

Maybe I'm asking a real noob question here. But how do you do that from the Ubuntu Server 10.04 64bit installer. There is no "try first" option and moving to another console right after the Install Ubuntu Server option gets me nowhere.

-/bin/bsh: sudo: not found

Trying to run without sudo command gets me

-bin/sh: apt-add:repository: not found

I have a empty box waiting for deployment so I will test as soon as I see updates. I figure one more week and I'll just go back to 9.10 if this doesn't get fixed so I have no problem continuing to test this.

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Philip:
Thanks so much. That seems to have solved the problem on my machine. Installation has finished.
I have not yet tried rebooting. That's the next step.
Herb

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Folks:
Phillip's fix seems to work, but now I cannot boot either Windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.04.
I'm not sure what I should do next to enable dual boot. I've looked at several pages, but I don't see what I really need to do.
I did apt-get install grub (grub was not loaded). I started grub:
grub install /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0
I got a grub prompt. But i Don't know what to do next.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Herb

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

I'll be testing tomorrow. Thanks for staying on this Phillip, and for tolerating our frustrations with this bug. :)

[Alan Aquino de Castro Junior (alanaquinojr)]

Hello. First I'd like to thank you all.

I'd also like to let you know how I finally got it solved. I´m using Ubuntu Server, so I can´t use the new patch...

I started the instalation normaly and when the formating error appear I did what Keith Taylor suggested :

mv /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p1 /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)1
mv /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p2 /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)2
mv /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)p5 /dev/mapper/(raiddevice)5

Then switched back to the install shell (Alt-F1)

The instalation finished normaly, but didn't boot...

I booted whith the CD and choice "Repair System...."

The instaltion detected the raid correctly and gave me a mounted shell...

I did what Konstantinos sugested:

apt-get purge dmraid
apt-get install dmraid
grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID
update-grub

Reboot...

and finaly the system bootted normaly.

Thanks .

Alan.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/16/2010 11:45 PM, Herbert Roitblat wrote:
> Folks: Phillip's fix seems to work, but now I cannot boot either
> Windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.04. I'm not sure what I should do next to
> enable dual boot. I've looked at several pages, but I don't see what
> I really need to do. I did apt-get install grub (grub was not
> loaded). I started grub: grub install
> /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 I got a grub prompt. But i Don't
> know what to do next. Thanks for your suggestions. Herb

At the last step of the installer you need to click the advanced button.
 It gives the option to not install grub, or install it to a device
other than /dev/sda. Change the device to
/dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0.

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Thanks again, Phillip. Does that mean I should start over? Will this work with dual boot?

I have been trying to follow the instructions given on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto.
I had to create a /target directory before I could bind to it.

root@ubuntu:/# dmraid -a y
RAID set "isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0" already active
RAID set "isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume01" already active
RAID set "isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume02" already active
RAID set "isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume03" already active
RAID set "isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume05" already active
RAID set "isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume06" already active

root@ubuntu:/# grub --no-curses

It worries me that grub reports the mirrored volumes separately:

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,4)
 (hd1,4)

Then I tried this:

grub> root (hd0,4)
root (hd0,4)
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,4)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... failed

Error 22: No such partition

Now, I tried again and got:

setup (hd0)

Error 12: Invalid device requested

So what is your advice? Have I wiped out my original raid configuration by writing to hd0?
Should I give up on dual boot? (I backed up my Windows 7 and could live without it).
Advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Herb

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/17/2010 10:29 AM, Herbert Roitblat wrote:
> Thanks again, Phillip. Does that mean I should start over? Will
> this work with dual boot?

It should.

> I have been trying to follow the instructions given on
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto. I had to create a
> /target directory before I could bind to it.

I really need to update that as it is now quite out of date. Ignore it
for now and just install the updated package from my ppa, then install
normally. You should choose the manual partition option and make sure
to select to install to the same partition as last time, then change the
grub install device at the end, and it should all just work.

> grub> root (hd0,4) root (hd0,4) grub> setup (hd0) setup (hd0)
> Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes Checking if
> "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes Checking if
> "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes Running "embed
> /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
> succeeded Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p
> (hd0,4)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... failed

That looks like grub 1. We are using grub 2 these days.

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Sorry to bother you yet again.
ubi-partman crashed.
ubi-partman failed with exit code 10.
This happened just after choosing the keyboard layout.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/17/2010 12:40 PM, Herbert Roitblat wrote:
> Sorry to bother you yet again.
> ubi-partman crashed.
> ubi-partman failed with exit code 10.
> This happened just after choosing the keyboard layout.

Was this after upgrading to the version in my ppa? And it did not crash
before?

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Thanks, Phillip.
Yes. I followed your suggestion to load the updates. That seemed to work real well. I did not set the boot correctly and tried to follow the directions to load grub after the fact (see Post #92). When that failed, I deleted the partions using gparted. Then I tried to reload the system without rebooting the live disk (trying to retain our ppa fix).
I fear that I hosed my raid. If that's the case, I'll just try to load Ubuntu as a single boot.
I'll reboot to the try it out version, reload your fixes, and then proceed from there to use the whole machine.
Does this plan make sense?
Thanks so much.
Herb

[JustBill (justbill)]

Phillip
Tried what you said to do. Am I supposed to install grub on the /boot partition or to the the actual device listing. For example I partition out like this.

/dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace
-- /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace1 ext4 256MB /boot
-- /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace2 swap 2GB /swap
-- /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace5 ext4 40GB /
-- /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace6 ext4 756MB /var/log
-- /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace7 XFS 116GB /isostorage

Thats what worked with 9.10. I tried installing the bootloader on /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace. That sent my computer into infinite reboot. I will try on the boot parition. Just for reference I have an AMD raid chipset with a pair of 160 GB SATA drives.

Thanks for all you help.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/17/2010 4:25 PM, JustBill wrote:
> Phillip Tried what you said to do. Am I supposed to install grub on
> the /boot partition or to the the actual device listing. For example
> I partition out like this.

To the disk that the /boot partition is on. In your case, that would be
/dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace. Also there isn't much reason to
have /boot on its own partition unless you are doing something like run
a btrfs root, or some other fs that grub does not understand. Also why
give /var/log its own partition? That is quit unusual.

[JustBill (justbill)]

Well trying to install grub onto the boot partition did not work. Eternal boot loop. Forgot to mention I'm trying this with the Xubuntu 10.04 LTS

[JustBill (justbill)]

You keep /var/log separate because if your log files ever get to large it
doesn't overfill your root partition which would then stop you from booting.
 I'm using /boot to help speed things up and make sure that boot files stay
at the front of the logical disk. Giving /var/log is not unusual. It's a
best practices for many server installs. Some people give it it to just
/var but I prefer /var/log as I've never seen anything outside of /var/log
grow out of hand. I also use to run XFS as my main file type for root but
have decided to stop doing that since 9.10 as ext4 works well enough for OS
files. I'm not building a desktop. I'm building a server that I want to
stay up once it is built. When I build my laptops or desktops I just let it
go automatically.

Hope that answers your questions.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 5:26 PM, Phillip Susi <email address hidden> wrote:

> On 5/17/2010 4:25 PM, JustBill wrote:
> > Phillip Tried what you said to do. Am I supposed to install grub on
> > the /boot partition or to the the actual device listing. For example
> > I partition out like this.
>
> To the disk that the /boot partition is on. In your case, that would be
> /dev/mapper/isw_dagjfgcbdi_OSspace. Also there isn't much reason to
> have /boot on its own partition unless you are doing something like run
> a btrfs root, or some other fs that grub does not understand. Also why
> give /var/log its own partition? That is quit unusual.
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: dmraid
>
> Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid
> controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1)
> and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default
> options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails
> stating it could not create a filesystem.
>
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386
> (20100419.1)
> Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Tags: lucid
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
> UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/568050/+subscribe
>

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Phillip,
sorry, I need a bit more help. Using your ppa:

After waiting for the keyserver to finally connect, I am trying to reinstall the system as a single boot Ubuntu 10.04 with raid mirroring.
I got to this screen

──────────────────────────┤ Configuring grub-pc ├──────────────────────────┐
 │ │
 │ The grub-pc package is being upgraded. This menu allows you to select │
 │ which devices you'd like grub-install to be automatically run for, if │
 │ any.

...

And I said OK.

Then I get here:

────────────────────────────┤ Configuring grub-pc ├────────────────────────────┐
 GRUB install devices: │
                                                                               │
    [ ] /dev/sda (750156 MB, ST3750528AS) │
    [ ] /dev/sdb (750156 MB, ST3750528AS) │
    [*] /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (750153 MB, isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0) │
                                                                               │
                                                                               │
                                    <Ok>

Again, I select OK. I just want the /dev/mapper one, I think, because the other two are the raw disk drives for the raid.

I then get:

┌──────────────────────────┤ Configuring grub-pc ├──────────────────────────┐
 │ │
 │ GRUB failed to install to the following devices: │
 │ │
 │ /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 │
 │ │
 │ Do you want to continue anyway? If you do, your computer may not start │
 │ up properly. │
 │ │
 │ GRUB installation failed. Continue?

What do I do?

Thanks,
Herb

[JustBill (justbill)]

I had that same screen, but chose to continue on and tried fixing it in the
advanced tab and the end of the installer questions.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 7:13 PM, Herbert Roitblat <email address hidden> wrote:

> Phillip,
> sorry, I need a bit more help. Using your ppa:
>
> After waiting for the keyserver to finally connect, I am trying to
> reinstall the system as a single boot Ubuntu 10.04 with raid mirroring.
> I got to this screen
>
> ──────────────────────────┤ Configuring grub-pc
> ├──────────────────────────┐
> │
> │
> │ The grub-pc package is being upgraded. This menu allows you to select
> │
> │ which devices you'd like grub-install to be automatically run for, if
> │
> │ any.
>
> ...
>
> And I said OK.
>
> Then I get here:
>
> ────────────────────────────┤ Configuring grub-pc
> ├────────────────────────────┐
> GRUB install devices:
> │
>
> │
> [ ] /dev/sda (750156 MB, ST3750528AS)
> │
> [ ] /dev/sdb (750156 MB, ST3750528AS)
> │
> [*] /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (750153 MB, isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0)
> │
>
> │
>
> │
> <Ok>
>
> Again, I select OK. I just want the /dev/mapper one, I think, because
> the other two are the raw disk drives for the raid.
>
>
> I then get:
>
> ┌──────────────────────────┤ Configuring grub-pc
> ├──────────────────────────┐
> │
> │
> │ GRUB failed to install to the following devices:
> │
> │
> │
> │ /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0
> │
> │
> │
> │ Do you want to continue anyway? If you do, your computer may not start
> │
> │ up properly.
> │
> │
> │
> │ GRUB installation failed. Continue?
>
> What do I do?
>
> Thanks,
> Herb
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: dmraid
>
> Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid
> controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1)
> and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default
> options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails
> stating it could not create a filesystem.
>
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386
> (20100419.1)
> Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Tags: lucid
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
> UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/568050/+subscribe
>

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Did it work, JustBill?

[JustBill (justbill)]

Sorry, no

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 7:30 PM, Herbert Roitblat <email address hidden> wrote:

> Did it work, JustBill?
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: dmraid
>
> Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid
> controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1)
> and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default
> options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails
> stating it could not create a filesystem.
>
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386
> (20100419.1)
> Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Tags: lucid
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
> UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/568050/+subscribe
>

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On Mon, 2010-05-17 at 23:13 +0000, Herbert Roitblat wrote:
> [*] /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 (750153 MB, isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0) │

The volume name ends in a number. This does not work. Go into the bios
and recreate the volume without the 0 on the end.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Phillip,

     I just made the change to the raid volume as mine had a number on the end also. Going to use your PPA update from post #86. Ill let ya know how it goes.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Ok so in that blue package configuration window regarding grub, I had the same error that grub failed to install. I also do not have a # on the end of the named volume which was setup in the raid-bios. Chose continue anyway........

[JustBill (justbill)]

My fakeraid doesn't have number after it, the ones I posted from earlier are
what xubuntu assigned. It did not work for me.

Bill

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 9:24 PM, beamin <email address hidden> wrote:

> Ok so in that blue package configuration window regarding grub, I had
> the same error that grub failed to install. I also do not have a # on
> the end of the named volume which was setup in the raid-bios. Chose
> continue anyway........
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: dmraid
>
> Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid
> controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1)
> and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default
> options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails
> stating it could not create a filesystem.
>
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386
> (20100419.1)
> Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Tags: lucid
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
> UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/568050/+subscribe
>

[beamin (wmartindale)]

When I was in the package config for grub that goes along with apt-get upgrade, It listed /dev/sda and /dev/sdb as well as the volume. I chose the Volume to install grub to. As I stated before it failed.

I went through with the installation and on step 8 I went to specify where to install grub again. This time it lists /dev/sda, the Volume and Volume/partition1.

When I choose Volume/parition1 I can't click "OK". My only options are /dev/sda or Volume. I chose Volume and had no luck. Can't boot.

I threw a gparted livecd in and found that the partitions are labeled Volumep1 and Volume p2 (might have been p5, can't remember but you get the idea) by the live installer.

[Chris Martin (chris-martin-cc)]

Phillip

I followed your instructions and the install moved ahead without incident
However after completing the install the system will not boot, it tries to, but ends up rebooting very early

My raid volume does have a digit at the end, so I will try again, renaming it with no digit
Unfortunately, I didn't check back to pick up your latest post

Thanks for the pointers so far

[michelepasutto (mtornado77)]

Phillip,

i ve followed your instractions, but it still doesn't boot up giving me error 15. I ve noticed that the difference between karmic and lucid is the hd0 option on the advanced settings step 8. Lucid give sda sdb and the raid. What should I do now? thanks

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Another piece of what I hope is useful information:
I tried loading version 9.10 on the system as a single boot. Everything seemed to work until it came time to install either GRUB or LILO. Both failed.
My volume name ends with 0 (/dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0). I went into the BIOS to see if I could change that, but there is no entry on my Dell Studio XPS 8100 to give or change the drive a name. I don't know where that name comes from.

Hope that this provides some clues as to what the problem is.

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Herbert is there a separate BIOS for the raid controller? That is where I
am able to change the volume name. However for me this didn't help.

On May 18, 2010 8:21 AM, "Herbert Roitblat" <email address hidden> wrote:

Another piece of what I hope is useful information:
I tried loading version 9.10 on the system as a single boot. Everything
seemed to work until it came time to install either GRUB or LILO. Both
failed.
My volume name ends with 0 (/dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0). I went into
the BIOS to see if I could change that, but there is no entry on my Dell
Studio XPS 8100 to give or change the drive a name. I don't know where that
name comes from.

Hope that this provides some clues as to what the problem is.

--
Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
You rece...

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

I decided to dump the RAID and the Windows 7 and just start from scratch. I tried 9.10, but could not get it to boot. I am still having problems with 10.04 as well, but here is one issue.

When I look at the disk utility, it reports that I have a 750 GB ATA drive on Port 1 of PATA Host adapter, and a 750 GB ATA drive on Port 2 of PATA Host adapter.

Then under Peripheral Devices, I have a 699 MB File (filesystem.squashfs), which I infer is my LiveCD and a 750 GB Hard Disk. If I try to delete this partition, it says One or more block devices are holding /dev/mapper/isw_bifgdfbbc_Volume0 and it won't let me delete the partition.

GParted, reports that I have unallocated /dev/sda of 698.64 GiB. Where is the rest of it? And the same thing for /dev/sdb. They both say unallocated. How can there be a partition, which I cannot delete on a drive that is unallocated? Where are the other 51.36 GB? Why do I have this peripheral 750 GB Hard Disk? Why not two of them?

How do I wipe out everything and start with a clean slate and just install some version of Ubuntu?

Thanks,
Herb

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Phillip:
in loading your ppa, I get a screen that says:
configuring grup-pc
The following line was extracted from /etc/default/grub or the 'kopt' parameter in GRUB Legacy's Menu.lst. Please verify that it is correct, and modify it if necessary.

Linux command line:
------------------------------
<Ok>

Is this significant?

Thanks,
Herb

[Herbert Roitblat (herb-orcatec)]

Following up on my post #114.
I found that disabling RAID in the usual BIOS screens was not sufficient. The 750 GB drive that appeared under peripheral devices under the disk utility application was because RAID was still actually active. On my machine you have to hit ctrl-i during the short time when the disk drives are being displayed during the boot process. Then you can actually turn off the RAID. Once I did that, and turned it off in the bios, 10.04 loaded just fine. No RAID, but I do now have a working Ubuntu installation.

Thank you all for your help, your work on Ubuntu, and your suggestions.

Herb

[Charles Hill (lostinarmy)]

I'm very new to linux but I've found a work around that will probably seem pretty amateurish and potentially amusing but it has allowed me to dual boot win7 and Kubuntu 64 10.04 on my m17x with nvidia fakeraid0 (dual 500), after several failed attempts.
I initially created three partitions. I then installed using WUBI with the intention of then downloading LVPM. LVPM transfered it to the desired partition without a hitch. I then rebooted and, after some more frustration, installed dmraid, mounted the other partitions(sudo mount /dev/mapper/nvidia_whatever /createdPath), and updated my fstab file. I understand this is not the best solution but it worked in a pinch, I didn't lose any data, and my fakeraid is still intact.

[alex (alexhea)]

After so many failures and frustrations, I give up.

[Guybrush (guybrush333)]

I'll give Windows Server 2008 R2 a try until this is fixed...
Actually planned to try it in a VM in Ubuntu but oh well...
It installed flawlessly on my fakeraid at least.

[Arvind Singh (aaroh)]

This worked in 9.04 out of box, something broke.
I am sticking to Jaunty till this gets fixed, altho the release notes of 10.04 says this works out of box and I made a mistake of believing it.
Most of new servers have fakeraid and I have no option but not to upgrade to 10.04, all of my autoinstall process is now dead to for 10.04 with fakeraid servers and so are my customers.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/20/2010 10:27 AM, Arvind Singh wrote:
> This worked in 9.04 out of box, something broke. I am sticking to
> Jaunty till this gets fixed, altho the release notes of 10.04 says
> this works out of box and I made a mistake of believing it. Most of
> new servers have fakeraid and I have no option but not to upgrade to
> 10.04, all of my autoinstall process is now dead to for 10.04 with
> fakeraid servers and so are my customers.

Of course something broke, what do you think this bug report is for?
This kind of useless ranting does nothing to help solve the problem, in
fact, it makes it less likely to get attention because posts like this
drown out real useful information. If you want to rant, take it elsewhere.

[Obolo (spamer-onlinehome)]

@Phillip Susi: Don`t look on others, make a patch! Thousands of PCs can work with this version of Ubuntu, I am testing new MandrivaRC like others, too! So hurry up and do your job, thx!

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Seriously guys? As the original reporter of this bug, I'd like to state that thus far Phillip Susi is the only one who has offered ANY assistance in getting this resolved. I think our frustration with this bug has been duly noted, so now it's time to concentrate on a fix and helping Phillip. Please refrain from attacking the one guy who is actually trying to help as I'm sure that is no motivation for him to work on this bug at all. For all we know he may not even be getting paid for this and may be giving his assistance on a completely voluntary basis in the spirit of open source. Let's be constructive guys!

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/21/2010 9:24 AM, Obolo wrote:
> @Phillip Susi: Don`t look on others, make a patch! Thousands of PCs can
> work with this version of Ubuntu, I am testing new MandrivaRC like
> others, too! So hurry up and do your job, thx!

Again, useless comment. I do this for fun, not a job. I HAVE made a
patch and asked people to test it. If you don't have something useful
to add, go kvetch elsewhere.

[Guybrush (guybrush333)]

Somewhere above i believe i read that the patch is for ubuntu Desktop only - is that right?
Cause i need it for The server.

Also I'm very thankful for you help Phillip and all the other who tried to find workarounds.

BTW - IF it works for server will that package be updated via the package manager once this gets officially fixed?
Or do i need to remove it when i set up the raid?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 5/21/2010 1:18 PM, Guybrush wrote:
> Somewhere above i believe i read that the patch is for ubuntu Desktop
> only - is that right? Cause i need it for The server.

It does not know or care about the difference between server and
desktop, but when installing using the alternate installer, you are
stuck with the packages on the cd. It is with the livecd that you can
install the updated package before installing.

> BTW - IF it works for server will that package be updated via the
> package manager once this gets officially fixed? Or do i need to
> remove it when i set up the raid?

If it works out and gets uploaded as an SRU, it will not replace the
version installed from my PPA since I forgot to set the version number
to ~something, so they will have the same version number. There is
going to be a 10.04.1 release in a few weeks time to include SRUs so if
this fix makes it in, you will be able to install with the alternate
installer ( which the server install uses ).

[JustBill (justbill)]

That is correct. At least I don't know a way to update the server install
before building the partitions. But the patch didn't work for me as a
Desktop either.

Bill

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 1:18 PM, Guybrush <email address hidden> wrote:

> Somewhere above i believe i read that the patch is for ubuntu Desktop only
> - is that right?
> Cause i need it for The server.
>
> Also I'm very thankful for you help Phillip and all the other who tried
> to find workarounds.
>
> BTW - IF it works for server will that package be updated via the package
> manager once this gets officially fixed?
> Or do i need to remove it when i set up the raid?
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: dmraid
>
> Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid
> controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1)
> and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default
> options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails
> stating it could not create a filesystem.
>
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386
> (20100419.1)
> Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Tags: lucid
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
> UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/568050/+subscribe
>

[LoWeN (iamlowen)]

Hello,

First I would like to thank Phillip.

I have tested the patch further an alternate install by rebooting using the cd and choosing to rescue a broken box.
Than going in the launch a shell and remount all FS in place and add ppa, update, upgrade.
It doesn't help.
I have also recreated the initrd to ensure the new lib is included in.

For me the bug is a combination of parted/dmraid and grub2.

Past the cosmetic issue with ubiquity/parted the install can continue. (Using the trick of renaming devices)
I can install grub2 on /dev/mapper/isw_<aname>_Vol00 which is my fakreaid.

But and than I have 2 random options :
While choosing a linux entries it just point in the void and restart instantly or it finds a kernel boot it and crash on an unable to mount root.

And if I cheat by installing grub2 on /dev/sda and /dev/sbd which is finally what would happen if I install on /dev/mapper/isw_...
Than I can boot but and here is the but my root is falling on /dev/sda which tends to proof that there is something very weird in the initrd that doesn't create properly the /dev/mapper/isw_... and once booted I can't reassemble it as /dev/sda is already used as root.

I have also tried to create and extra entry in grub 2 adding a break=mount but it doesn't work even if the same trick works on a vmware using 10.04...

Hope this helps for further debug.

Regards,

LoWeN

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

LoWen, it sounds like your issue is unrelated to this bug. This bug prevents you from getting past the partition stage of the installer. If you could not even get past that before, but do when you install the patched version of dmraid from my ppa, then it did its job.

JustBill, when you say it did not work for you, do you mean you had issues booting the installed system like LoWen? Did it at least let you get through the partition stage of the installer?

Also remember that the raid volume name ending in a number causes other problems noted in other bugs, so please make sure your array name in the bios does not end in a number, like "Vol0" that the isw controllers seem to default to.

[JustBill (justbill)]

Phillip,

I guess now I have a Grub2 issue. I was able to get past the installer part
after your patch using Xubuntu. I guess I now need to find the Grub2 but.
:(

Bill

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Phillip Susi <email address hidden> wrote:

> LoWen, it sounds like your issue is unrelated to this bug. This bug
> prevents you from getting past the partition stage of the installer. If
> you could not even get past that before, but do when you install the
> patched version of dmraid from my ppa, then it did its job.
>
> JustBill, when you say it did not work for you, do you mean you had
> issues booting the installed system like LoWen? Did it at least let you
> get through the partition stage of the installer?
>
> Also remember that the raid volume name ending in a number causes other
> problems noted in other bugs, so please make sure your array name in the
> bios does not end in a number, like "Vol0" that the isw controllers seem
> to default to.
>
> --
> Ubuntu 10.04 can't create partition on fakeraid
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/568050
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “parted” package in Ubuntu: In Progress
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: dmraid
>
> Fresh install of Ubuntu Server 10.04 Beta 2 using Sil 3124 fakeraid
> controller card. Ubuntu install successfully detects fakeraid set (Raid1)
> and activates it, but after creating my partition layout using all default
> options with "Guided Partitioning",when I click finish to apply it, it fails
> stating it could not create a filesystem.
>
> Architecture: i386
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate i386
> (20100419.1)
> Package: ubiquity 2.2.20
> PackageArchitecture: i386
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Tags: lucid
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
> UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/568050/+subscribe
>

[LoWeN (iamlowen)]

Hello,

Ok I have renamed my ichr10 volume to VolA and VolB thus avoiding the ending in a number.
In fact there is no rename so I have deleted and recreated the volumes.

So I have empty disks to try.
I am also for this test running with the standard install disk.

Installing the ppa from Phillip help to avoid the error with the wrong partition.

I am now going to reboot and see if I can reboot in the installed 10.04 (currently writing from the livecd:-))

Regards,

Charles

[LoWeN (iamlowen)]

Hello,

So a straight reboot leads me to nothing.

But :
- Reboot with alternate cd
- Choose recover a broken system.
- Mount FS ( I am always having /boot out of swap)
- Verify and confirm dmraid is not installed (How can that be possible?)
- Install dmraid.
- Reinstall grub
- Update grub
- Reboot

And I am writing from Ubuntu 10.04 (My installed copy not the livecd).

So I confirm the patch from Phillip solves the installer issue only but it solves it.
Now we need more bugs to solve the install of dmraid from ubiquity when we install on a fakeraid.

Regards,

Charles

[LoWeN (iamlowen)]

Hello,

A bit more testing leads me to the following :

Using a volume not ending with a number seems to help grub2 to perform correctly.
But after several reboot I can tell the following :
Sometimes it will boot properly on the fakeraid and have the root on the fakeraid.
Sometimes it will boot improperly and end up with a root being a device of the fakeraid and all other fs not mounted.
Sometimes it will crash telling it can't find the root FS.

During all of that I have used a custom entries allowing a full boot but letting me see the boot.

For the improper boot and the can't find root it complains that at least one of the path of the dm failed with a timeout.

I have also done several reboot with a break=mount.

Without error message an ls /dev/mapper give results.
In other case the content of /dev/mapper is empty. Meaning the fakeraid is not present. Waiting the error message to show up.
Do an ls again and than I have entries under /dev/mapper.

So there is something there to dig.

Now how can we create a bug entry for that so that someone can work on it?

Regards,

Charles

[Dale Kuhn (dalekuhn)]

I am running Mint 9 using the post from Konstantinos on May 16 from this thread. I imagine this is mostly relevant to Ubuntu 10.4 as well. For the most part, it seems to work fine. However there are two things that are odd. When I get to the end of the install procedure where I run these commands:

grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID
update-grub

I get about 5 warnings of a memory leak from the install command and about 10 more from the update. This sounds similar to what Martin Lucich reported on 5/12. But it does reboot afterwards without issue. The second thing which seemed odd is when I went to install my Xilinx software. I'm installing to /opt/Xilinx which has about 170GB free based on right clicking the folder and looking at its properties. However, the Xilinx installer says I have insufficient disc space (it shows 0 GB free). What's funny is that it asks if I want to install anyway. I say yes, and the software works afterwards. This software does see my drives correctly under OpenSuse11.2 using the same partition setup.

So while there are workarounds to get this OS usable, there are still some lingering issues related to the handling of the fake raid arrays. For the record, I am using two 1TB drives under Intel Matrix Raid (ICH10R). The first 100GB of each drive is striped and used for / and swap, the other 900GB from each drive is mirrored and mounted as /home. All partitions except swap are ext4.

I'm still pretty new to Linux in general, but I'm willing to help test and get this resolved.

Thanks for your help,
Dale

[Obolo (spamer-onlinehome)]

I've got a simple solution for this problem: I've build a linux softraid instead the fakeraid from the onboard chip. This brings me a lot of pluses:

1. The PC boots faster because of the missing RAID-Bios-screen

2. The HDDs are working now with AHCI and can use their full performance (NCQ etc)

3. SMART is now working on the Linux-Desktop for each HDD

4. The performance of the Linux-Software-Raid0 is 25% higher (!) then the fakeraid-performance (hdparm, bonnie)

5. The installation with the alternate-cd ist free of failtures!

So, use the Linux Softraid! You can only win!

[Dale Kuhn (dalekuhn)]

I'm curious about software raid. The main reason I like my matrix fakeraid setup is that I can have part of my disc used for striping and the rest used for mirroring. I decided to build my own box and not buy a copy of Windows so I don't have any dual boot issues at this point. Honestly, I've never timed my bootup with and without fake raid striping to compare them. Maybe it doesn't matter that much?

[Obolo (spamer-onlinehome)]

@Dale Kuhn: You can create RAID-Arrays like the Intel-Raid Matrix, but you can create more than two different RAID-Arrays. With Intel-Matrix you can create only two RAID-Arrays (RAID0+RAID1 or 2xRAID0 or 2x RAID1 etc) , with Linux Softraid you can create many RAIDs you like. Its a killer-feature I think. If you want install Windows beside, you leave place on one HDD and make a Windows Softraid, ist possible since Vista, too!

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Guys, if you want to have a discussion about fakeraid vs soft raid,
please take it elsewhere since it is not pertinent to this bug.

[Pradeep Sanders (psanders-ultraviolet)]

When installing Ubuntu 10.04 server onto a fakeraid (Intel 82801) with a RAID-10 volume created, partman refuses to show the correct raid set. Even if you partition your disk using another OS and boot back into the installer, you still cannot select it.

The only solution I have found is to do the following:

1) Switch to another console (alt-F2)
2) Save the output of /bin/parted_devices somewhere (/tmp/realdevices is used here)
3) Copy /bin/parted_devices to /bin/parted_devices.orig
4) Using nano, edit /bin/parted_devices and enter:

#!/bin/sh
cat /tmp/realdevices

5) chmod 755 /bin/parted_devices
6) Execute /bin/parted_devices and compare with output from executing /bin/parted_devices.orig. Should be identical.
7) Run fdisk on your RAID-10 volume and record the size in bytes from the first line output by the 'p' command
8) Using nano, edit /tmp/realdevices and copy the line for one of the component RAID-1 volumes. For example:

/dev/mapper/isw_abcabcabcd_Volume0-0 150037204992 Linux device-mapper (mirror)

9) Modify the copied line to match the raid-10 device:

/dev/mapper/isw_abcabcabcd_Volume0 300074401792 Linux device-mapper (mirror)

NOTE: These are examples for 150GB disks, making a 300GB RAID-10. abcabcabcd is also just a placeholder, yours will be different. USE THE CORRECT VALUES FOR YOUR SYSTEM!

10) Execute /bin/parted_devices and compare the output to the previous execution. The new line should appear formatted exactly like the ones you had before

11) Proceed with installation.
12) Skip installing a bootloader. When the install is complete, reboot to the install CD and enter rescue mode.
13) Chroot to the new disk, purge the grub-pc package, and install grub.
14) Run grub manually as follows:

grub --device-map=/dev/null

grub> device (hd0) /dev/mapper/isw_abcabcabcd_Volume0

grub> geometry (hd0) 121602 255 63 (use output from cfdisk here for Cylinders, Heads, Sectors)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 121602/255/63, The number of sectors = 1953536130, /dev/map
per/isw_hijdbieid_Volume0
   Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
   Partition num: 5, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82

grub> root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

15) Reboot

[Preet (preet-desai)]

 Phillip - I tried to run your patch (#84), but can't get past the package configuration for grub because it fails to install on /dev/mapper/isw_jfighfbah_My_RAID. I do not have a number at the end of the volume name. I'd appreciate any advice you can offer.

[Chris Martin (chris-martin-cc)]

Just in case any one is still interested in this, I thought I would let you know how I managed to install 10.04. on a DELL 390 with ICH7R fakeraid controller (mirrored drives)

First I have been struggling with this for a month - but without Phillip Susi's update I would never have made it - Thanks Phillip

I ended up using EXT3 for /root and grub

(1) Make fakeraid config in the BIOS - without a digit in at the end. (see ls /dev/mapper output)crw-rw---- 1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 2010-06-01 23:29 isw_badgdgdehd_crow # (note: no digit)
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 1 2010-06-01 23:29 isw_badgdgdehd_crow1 # /root
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 2 2010-06-01 23:29 isw_badgdgdehd_crow5 # swap
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 3 2010-06-01 23:29 isw_badgdgdehd_crow6 # /home

(2) In a terminal window - Install Phillips update:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:psusi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libparted0 # Note: I used install otherwise you get ALL updates

(3) Perform Install - BUT:
(3.a) Chose manual partitioning and make sure that the root fs is EXT3
(3.b) At the last step before the actual install, click the Advanced options and uncheck the "install boot loader option". We will install grub (the boot loader later).

(4) After installer finishes reboot the machine. and boot from the live CD again
(4.a) Check that you can view the partitions in the raid array with this command
         $ ls -l /dev/mapper/
         control
         isw_badgdgdehd_crow
         isw_badgdgdehd_crow1
         isw_badgdgdehd_crow5
         isw_badgdgdehd_crow6

(5) Install libparted0 and grub in your new Ubuntu installation:
     I'm not sure I really needed to install libpartd0 but I did anyway.
         1. $ sudo mkdir /m
         2. $ sudo mount /dev/mapper/isw_badgdgdehd_crow1 /m # This mounted my /root under /m
         3. $ sudo mount --bind /dev /m/dev/
         4. $ sudo mount -t proc proc /m/proc/
         5. $ sudo mount -t sysfs sys /m/sys/
         6. $ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /m/etc/resolv.conf
         7. $ sudo chroot /m
         8. # apt-add-repository ppa:psusi/ppa
         9. # apt-get update
       10. # apt-get install libpartd0
       11. # apt-get install grub

(6) Set up grub
       1. # mkdir /boot/grub
       2. # cp /usr/lib/grub/x86_64-pc/* /boot/grub/
       3. # grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_badgdgdehd_crow
           NOTE: I received and error indicating that the Drive was not in the BIOS - but it did create the device.map file.
       4. edit the file /boot/grub/device.map
           - change
           (fd0) /dev/fd0
           (hd0) /dev/sda
           (hd1) /dev/sdb
           - to
           (fd0) /dev/fd0
           (hd0) /dev/mapper/isw_badgdgdehd_crow
           (hd1) /dev/mapper/isw_badgdgdehd_crow
       5. # grub --no-curses # you will then have a grub prompt
       6. grub> device (hd0) /dev/mapper/isw_badgdgdehd_crow
       7. grub> root (hd0,0)
       8. grub> setup (hd1) # Yep. I had to do both - In this order
       9. grub> setup (hd0)
     10. grub> quit
     11. # update-grub # Answer yes to creating a menu.lst

(7) Reboot

I was then able to boot...

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Chris Martin,

     YOU ARE THE MAN! This actually WORKED! Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is booting on my fakeraid now! Awesome!

Thanks PHILLIP also for your support!!!

[Demetrio Pecorini (demetrio90)]

Hi all, i'm trying to follow Chris Martin's solution to install Ubuntu 10.04 with Windows 7 on a RAID 0 with ICH8R Controller.
This is my partition scheme, after a successfull install (thanks to Phillip Susi):

crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 59 2010-06-02 12:35 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 2010-06-02 12:35 isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 1 2010-06-02 12:35 isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR1 # Windows 7 NTFS
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 2 2010-06-02 12:35 isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR5 # swap
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 3 2010-06-02 12:35 isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR6 # / EXT3

I have edit my device.map file in this current way, (i have also hd2 as you can see):

(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/mapper/isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR
(hd1) /dev/mapper/isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR
(hd2) /dev/mapper/isw_cgecfhgbha_CAVIAR

Finally, when i try to setup grub with the following command:

setup (hd1)

I get an error saying: "Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition". Do you know what i'm doing wrong? Sorry for my noob questions.

[Demetrio Pecorini (demetrio90)]

Sorry for my previous post, i finally got Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7 to work in dual boot, I was using wrong partitions to configure grub. Thank you very much Phillip Susi and Chris Martin for your support you gave us.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 06/02/2010 05:33 PM, Demirulez wrote:
> Sorry for my previous post, i finally got Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7 to
> work in dual boot, I was using wrong partitions to configure grub. Thank
> you very much Phillip Susi and Chris Martin for your support you gave
> us.

Did you need the modified package in my PPA to do so?

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Phillip,

     Both Demi and I followed Chris Martin's write up which included your PPA.

[syngiun (syngiun)]

I'm trying to follow Chris Martin's write up however...

All goes well until step 4.a. I run $ ls -l /dev/mapper/ and I get the following (using Mint 9):

mint@mint ~ $ ls -l /dev/mapper/
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 59 2010-06-03 06:33 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 2010-06-03 06:33 isw_cabcedbh_PapaRaid

During install, I manually created a root ( / ) and a /home partition (no swap as I have 8GB RAM and don't use hibernate.) Otherwise, the rest of the install process went fine.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all I'm seeing here is the array, and not either of my partitions.

What to do now?

[Demetrio Pecorini (demetrio90)]

Phillip,

         yes, i used your modiefied package before and after installing, like Chris Martin's said and if it can be useful i followed also this tutorial for dual booting: http://neildecapia.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/dual-booting-windows-7-and-ubuntu-karmic-9-10-on-a-raid-0-array/ (no need to repair my Windows 7 installation like said).

[beamin (wmartindale)]

Synguin,

      That is only the array, yes.

     Did you install the OS on the array originally and not one of the drives separately? (Im assuming you did since it detects the array when you do ls -l /dev/mapper. I just slapped a mint 9 cd in my ubuntu 10.04 box just for kicks and it lists the array + partitions just fine.

       That's pretty weird that you rebooted into the livecd and there is nothing there after doing a full install... !

       My only suggestion: Try again?

[Mario Arias (the-clone-master)]

For those trying to use 10.4 server and not desktop....

I was able to install using FakeRaid with these steps (mixed from several posts and a lot of trial and error later testing with three different machines)...

* Create fakeraid taking care of not having a digit at the end of the raid volume name
* Partition the volume using Ubuntu 9.10. In my case, I had Ubunto 9.10 server installer stopped right after partitions were created and the installer began to copy files to the disk. At that point I shut down the server.
* Start 10.4 LTS server installer.
* When you get to partitioning, select the ext4 partition and modify it to use as ext4 (currently ussage is none) and set the mount point to "/ (root)". Don't touch anything else
* Finish partitioning and let the installer complete.
* When done, restart the machine but go into the 10.4 installer again. This time select "repair a broken system"
* When you reach the menu with the different repair options (start a terminal session, ..., install grub, ...) choose install grub and enter your fakeraid device.... /dev/mapper/isw_XXXXXXX_XXXX (the one with no number at the end..)
* Remove the installer and restart the server
* Enjoy 10.4 LTS on FakeRaid... ;-)

Regards,
-Mario

[Kzin (wmkzin)]

Hello Everybody,
First, I can confirm this bug, SATA RAID1, nVidia nForce4 chipset, onboard MSI K8N Neo4 or something like that.
Second, I can confirm Phillip's fix works.
Lastly, I found a more streamlined approach to a successful install, at least for me. Sorry Phillip for the scope creep, but it seems that most people hit this same wall once they apply your patch, and that is that grub does not install correctly.

This is pretty much copied verbatim from the post by Chris Martin... I am just going to modify it a bit, there are some key differences, so keep an eye out;

(1) Start the desktop installer, choose to try Ubuntu (This could work with alt install, but this is what I did)
(2) In a terminal window - Install Phillips update:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:psusi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libparted0

(3) Perform Install - BUT:
(3.a) Choose use overwrite entire disk (all data will be lost)
(3.b) At the last step before the actual install, click the Advanced options and uncheck the "install boot loader option". We will install grub (the boot loader) later.

(4) After installer finishes return to your terminal window
(4.a) Check that you can view the partitions in the raid array with this command
         $ ls -l /dev/mapper/
         control
         nvidia_achdbjg
         nvidia_achdbjg1
         nvidia_achdbjg5

(5) Install grub2 in your new Ubuntu installation:
         sudo mkdir /m
         sudo mount /dev/mapper/nvidia_achdbjg1 /m
         sudo mount --bind /dev /m/dev/
         sudo mount -t proc proc /m/proc/
         sudo mount -t sysfs sys /m/sys/
         sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /m/etc/resolv.conf
         sudo chroot /m
         apt-get install grub-pc

Here you get a few menus, and also a prompt as to where you would like to install the bootloader. I installed mine on /dev/mapper/nvidia_achdbjg. Be sure to install it on your mapper device and not your /dev/sdx devices, as those aren't available at reboot.
You will get a bunch of memory leak errors.

Reboot and everything works nicely.

Thank you Phillip for the patch and thank you Chris for the steps that got me most of the way there. Didn't work for me, but got me on the right course.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package parted - 2.2-5ubuntu6

---------------
parted (2.2-5ubuntu6) maverick; urgency=low

  [ Phillip Susi ]
  * fix-dmraid-regression.path: Reverse upstream change that broke
    installation on dmraid disks for lucid (LP: #568050)
    (Note that this patch is likely to be reverted in Maverick once
    udev/lvm2 switch to the new naming scheme, per the upstream mailing list
    discussion.)
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:07:13 +0100

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

I'm sponsoring Phillip's fix, with a few inconsequential tweaks - thanks! Note that the version in lucid-proposed is going to be LESS than that in Phillip's PPA, due to how standard version numbering works out with respect to maverick - I'm not going to worry too much about this.

[Federico Gonzalez (federico-gonzalez)]

Where can I find a LiveCD (x64 Server) that includes the fix?
I'm about to switch my server over from Windows to Ubuntu+VMware and getting a wee bit nervous reading this topic. :)

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 6/15/2010 11:15 AM, Federico Gonzalez wrote:
> Where can I find a LiveCD (x64 Server) that includes the fix? I'm
> about to switch my server over from Windows to Ubuntu+VMware and
> getting a wee bit nervous reading this topic. :)

There is no such thing as a server livecd. The livecd is the desktop
build, server can only be installed with the conventional text mode
installer. It sounds like an iso for testing this should be posted here
soon, and if it goes well, the 10.04.1 release images should have the
fix and work when they are released.

[Federico Gonzalez (federico-gonzalez)]

Phillip,
Thank you for your answer. I'll keep an eye out for 10.04.1 then - as far as I can tell it will be released during July.

[David Tomlin (davetomlin)]

Phillip,

You're the man! Thanks for taking on this bug!

Dave

[Julian (julian-online)]

Hy,
I have a DELL E520 with an Intel ICH8R fake raid. Following the instructions from Jeremy and
later the patch from Philip i managed to install 10.04 on the RAID. First the ext4 and than the swap partition.
Thanks a lot for this information!

Now i have the issue that the PC does not boot sometimes (most times).
Grub starts and afterwards the screen get blank, no kernel messages etc.
I updated grub2 several times and try to find the issue but did not find out why.

Can this be related to the same issues with the fake raid? guess that grub did not find the kernel etc.
Or should i try to install a separate boot partition or grub1 ..

Julian

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Julian, please start a thread on the ubuntu forums for help making sure
grub is set up correctly. We need to keep this bug report clear of
clutter. This issue only affects the partitioning stage of installing.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted parted into lucid-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

[Joel Ebel (jbebel)]

I have tested the parted-udeb libparted0-udeb inside debian-installer and can confirm that now the partitions are created in /dev/mapper by created, for example ..Volume01 rather than ..Volume0p1. The installation proceeds past the partitioning phase now. However, at the end of the install, grub-install still tried to install to /dev/sda and failed.

[michael ansey (der-brain)]

To make it clear we have multiple bugs which effects all Ubuntu Version
installing Fakeraid. The first is that you can not create pratition (
end up with red screen) The second is that you can not install grub2.
The third nobody test so far comes up if you use mdadm Grub2 is only
installed on one disk meanwhile installation and you can not add a
grub2 manually to the second disk. You will faile by a error which sounds:
Installing grub2 to a partition is not a good idea only if you
have a raid array -- installation fails (sorry just a rough translation
i installed in German language.

This means for 10.04 Lucid Lynx there is no redudant system possible
out of the box. I strongly suggest taking the server version offline and
move it back to testing cause it is a real dangerous for running a
10.04 Server system.

The last bug means that if your second drive fails you have to go to your
hosting company if you do not have a remote card installed!
This shoud be written in the documantation and not that fakeraid is supported.
That is lie!

What we all need are fixed 10.04 CD´s which includes Phllips patch
and several grub2 patches especially writing boot sector to the
second disk.

At the end i have to say i am very disapointed that there is obviosly no
testing at HP! It was so big in all newspapers that Canonical works now
together with HP espacially SERVER. I am sure they never insert a Beta
to their Raid 1 machines at HP! This is a relationship just for Canonical
for promotion. There is no Ubuntu testing at HP labs for sure!

As administrator i just can say using Debian or Redhat is save.
I will use Ubuntu just for Desktop Computers after this experience.
This also shows a lot about HP. I do not want to buy Servers for
a few hundred tousend dollars from a company which does not
test there certified LTS Server Version - ... no thank you i will not
bring a company with such a behaviour in contact with my cusomers!

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

This is getting off topic Michael, but fakeraid support is only useful
for dual boot compatibility with Windows. It is not well supported, and
does not properly handle fault tolerance on any distribution. If you
are building a server or otherwise do not dual boot with Windows, you
should be using conventional Linux mdadm software raid, which is well
tested and supported.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Hello Joel,

Joel Ebel [2010-06-18 18:33 -0000]:
> I have tested the parted-udeb libparted0-udeb inside debian-installer
> and can confirm that now the partitions are created in /dev/mapper by
> created, for example ..Volume01 rather than ..Volume0p1. The
> installation proceeds past the partitioning phase now.

Thanks for testing!

> However, at the end of the install, grub-install still tried to
> install to /dev/sda and failed.

OK, seems that there is an additional grub problem then. Can you
please add a grub task ("Also affects distribution...") and attach the
install log?

It seems the parted side of the fix worked, so I mark this as
verified. While it doesn't fix the complete install, it at least gets
a step further.

Thanks, Martin

[Joel Ebel (jbebel)]

install log of failed grub-installer attached.

I note that within the installer, fdisk still uses the old 0p1 names for the partitions. perhaps unrelated, but interesting.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

On 6/21/2010 3:38 AM, Martin Pitt wrote:
> OK, seems that there is an additional grub problem then. Can you
> please add a grub task ("Also affects distribution...") and attach the
> install log?

This should be filed as a separate bug against the installer ( if one
does not already exist ) rather than attached to this one. The
installer has always assumed it should install grub to sda so you have
always had to manually tell it to install to the raid device instead.
That issue is really unrelated to this one.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package parted - 2.2-5ubuntu5.1

---------------
parted (2.2-5ubuntu5.1) lucid-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Phillip Susi ]
  * fix-dmraid-regression.path: Reverse upstream change that broke
    installation on dmraid disks for lucid (LP: #568050)
    (Note that this patch is likely to be reverted in Maverick once
    udev/lvm2 switch to the new naming scheme, per the upstream mailing list
    discussion.)
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:20:45 +0100

[SAB (sbungay)]

Is there a respin of 10.04 that will see, use, and install on a software raid? Though I would prefer UBUNTU 10.04, I spent far too much time researching and working on this problem to no avail and ended up migrating to Fedora 13 which, I gotta say, set up on the raid like a duck takes to water. Please tell me this problem is fixed, I'd like to return to UBUNTU but I need that raid and can't spend more time futzing around trying to get it to work.

[SAB (sbungay)]

Forgot the environment info...

Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD EVO
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 240
ATI 870 / SB850
2GB RAM
3x500GB Segate HDs in a (software) RAID 5 configuration

[Scott Talbert (swt-techie)]

On Tue, 27 Jul 2010, SAB wrote:

> Is there a respin of 10.04 that will see, use, and install on a software
> raid? Though I would prefer UBUNTU 10.04, I spent far too much time
> researching and working on this problem to no avail and ended up
> migrating to Fedora 13 which, I gotta say, set up on the raid like a
> duck takes to water. Please tell me this problem is fixed, I'd like to
> return to UBUNTU but I need that raid and can't spend more time futzing
> around trying to get it to work.

SAB,

I don't know about a respin of the installer CD, but I was able to get it
to work off the existing installer CD by:

1. Boot into the Live CD.
2. Get a network connection.
3. "sudo apt-get update"
4. "sudo apt-get install libparted0"
5. Start installer.

Install worked fine for me after this point.

Scott

[baker.alex (baker.alex)]

10.04.1 was just released this week. Setting up a dual-boot FakeRAID was effortless

1. Configured RAID array in BIOS named STRIPE
2. Created a partition on the array and installed Windows 7
3. Booted 10.04.1 live CD, chose to test drive Ubuntu, began installer, and partitioned remaining space
4. At the final step before installation I clicked "Advanced" and instructed GRUB to install to my base array /dev/mapper/isw_eahajccfcj_STRIPE (*not* /dev/sda or the partition /dev/mapper/isw_eahajccfcj_STRIPE2 where Ubuntu was installed)
5. Finished installation and rebooted

If you are installing Windows 7 and you have hard drives outside of your array then pay attention to the location of the System Reserved partition. When I ran the Windows Installer it placed this partition on a separate drive that had a higher boot priority than the RAID array that I installed GRUB to

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

I don't know why this had a task opened for grub-installer. It was an issue in parted and was fixed, so closing the grub-installer task.

[Ksaun (cougarslayer)]

I understand about half of what is being said, but I thought all would find this interesting. My harddrive, a WD 1T SATAIII 64MB 7200rpm, was first installed with Windows 7. (Gigabyte motherboard) I used vmware to try a few linux distributions. I settled on Ubuntu. I put in the live Ubuntu 10.04.1 disk and tried to install it but my "prepare partition" screen was blank. fdisk -l returned nothing. Gparted saw nothing. I rebooted wtih Gparted live, it saw nothing. I typed sudo testdisk and it saw a very small partition (640MB) and stated the write access was blocked. I reformatted with windows XP to NTFS, tried it again... same crap. I tried booting without dmraid and then uninstalled dmraid once booted (complete uninstall), and same thing: gparted could not see my partition. I moved my SATAIII drive to a SATAII plugin... no problem. Ubuntu is now loading....?