[TriLUG] Problems with debian software raid install.

[David A. Cafaro]

Ok, I need some help.  I'm normally a RedHat/CentOS/Fedora person,  
but for this project I needed to go with Debian.  One requirements is  
that the two 160GB hardrives be setup to provide software raid.  No  
problem the Debian installer seems to handle that no problem and I'm  
able to setup everything how I would like:

/dev/hda1 108GB raid1 bootable flag
/dev/hda2 20GB raid1
/dev/hda3 20GB raid1
/dev/hda4 2GB raid1

/dev/hdc1 108GB raid1 bootable flag
/dev/hdc2 20GB raid1
/dev/hdc3 20GB raid1
/dev/hdc4 2GB raid1

/dev/md0 108GB / raid1
/dev/md1 20GB /home raid1
/dev/md2 20GB /tmp raid1
/dev/md3 2GB swap raid1

(that's roughly how it's setup)

All seems to go well debian install goes right through and installs  
all the software, claims grub is installed and reboots.  At which  
point I get a no bootable device found.  I think maybe grub didn't  
get install correctly so I try booting into debian rescue.  Debian  
can't mount the raid, doesn't see it, just the raw raid partitions.   
Just for kicks I boot Fedora 6 rescue, it sees the partitions no  
problem and mounts them all for me to work with.  So from Fedora 6  
rescue I chroot and reinstall grub, reboot, and still no boot  
devices.  Then I find the following article:

http://valery.bgit.net/blog-en/2006/07/30/debian-installer-sata-and- 
software-raid/

And figure I'll give that a shot.  I step through the whole article  
(converting SATA to PATA instructions) and no problem, reboot and no  
bootable devices.  At this point I've started trying to play with the  
bios settings to see if that helps, I'm just wondering if there is a  
known issue with Debian Grub and booting from software raid devices  
(which should not be a challenge like this).  Any clues?

And this is Debian Etch v 4.0 r1 i3.

Thanks,
David


David A. Cafaro <dac at cafaro.net>
Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net