[SOLVED] Installing Arch on Hardware RAID

dakota · 2021-07-17 22:52:52

I am trying to install Arch on a system that uses hardware RAID and I'm confused about the sequence of steps I need to follow.

lspci | grep RAID
--------------------
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation SATA Controller [RAID mode]

I have performed the following steps:
1. setup SATA controller as RAID in the BIOS
2. during boot, I selected the (2) disks I want to use in the RAID array. (type = RAID 1 - mirror)
3. ... continued to boot into the Arch iso
4. changed my keyboard layout... tested my Internet connection... setup my system time...
5. installed a partition table on /dev/sda (3 partitions for future /, /home, and /var)
6. tried to create a file system on /dev/sda, but encountered an error

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
--------------------
/dev/sda1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

I assume the partition is in use because it is being managed by the RAID controller.

Questions:

1. Should I setup the partition tables on both hard drives before I add them to the array? (The RAID configuration software warns that any information on the hard drives will be destroyed!)

2. Should I (somehow) be following the steps from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/RAID (even though this page seem like it is for software RAID)?

3. Should the mkfs.ext4 target be modified for RAID? For example: mkfs.ext4 /dev/md126?

I'm pretty sure that when I ran lsblk -f before partitioning and md126 was not listed. But after rebooting it is shown.

====================

EDIT - I deleted the partition table on /dev/sda (wanting to create it on the RAID volume, md126, instead). Rebooting showed the RAID array as degraded. I rebuilt the array (took 2 hours). After rebooting, I was able to create a partition table on /dev/md126 and install a filesystem (ext4). After rebooting, the partition table was still there, so I continued the Arch install up until instructed to reboot.

Upon rebooting, I was dumped into an emergency shell.

Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/md126p1...
Error: device '/dev/md126p1' not found. Skipping fsck.
::mounting '/dev/md126p1' on real root
mount: /new-root: no filesystem type specified.
You are now being dropped into an emergency shell.
sh:: can't access tty; job control turned off
[rootfs ]#

lsblk -f
--------------------
NAME        FSTYPE          FSVER  LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0       squashfs        4.0                                                                    
sda         isw_raid_member 1.1.00                                                                 
├─md126                                                                                            
│ ├─md126p1 ext4            1.0                e4ccf56e-23b3-41cf-b0c5-e69cfb3270ef   16.8G     9% /
│ ├─md126p2 ext4            1.0                f003c4f9-ea78-4923-966d-77032018014d  185.8G     0% /home
│ └─md126p3 ext4            1.0                3a3f54aa-4e00-4ced-8e22-75ae01e4bb73  185.3G     0% /var
└─md127                                                                                            
sdb         isw_raid_member 1.1.00                                                                 
├─md126                                                                                            
│ ├─md126p1 ext4            1.0                e4ccf56e-23b3-41cf-b0c5-e69cfb3270ef   16.8G     9% /
│ ├─md126p2 ext4            1.0                f003c4f9-ea78-4923-966d-77032018014d  185.8G     0% /home
│ └─md126p3 ext4            1.0                3a3f54aa-4e00-4ced-8e22-75ae01e4bb73  185.3G     0% /var
└─md127                                                                                            
sdc         iso9660                ARCH_202008 2020-08-01-09-10-05-00                              
├─sdc1      iso9660                ARCH_202008 2020-08-01-09-10-05-00                              
└─sdc2      vfat            FAT16  ARCHISO_EFI 1349-62FE                                           
sr0

cat /etc/fstab
--------------------
# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/md126p1
UUID=e4ccf56e-23b3-41cf-b0c5-e69cfb3270ef	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 1

# /dev/md126p2
UUID=f003c4f9-ea78-4923-966d-77032018014d	/home     	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

# /dev/md126p3
UUID=3a3f54aa-4e00-4ced-8e22-75ae01e4bb73	/var      	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

cat /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
--------------------
# Config file for Syslinux -
# /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
#
# Comboot modules:
#   * menu.c32 - provides a text menu
#   * vesamenu.c32 - provides a graphical menu
#   * chain.c32 - chainload MBRs, partition boot sectors, Windows bootloaders
#   * hdt.c32 - hardware detection tool
#   * reboot.c32 - reboots the system
#
# To Use: Copy the respective files from /usr/lib/syslinux to /boot/syslinux.
# If /usr and /boot are on the same file system, symlink the files instead
# of copying them.
#
# If you do not use a menu, a 'boot:' prompt will be shown and the system
# will boot automatically after 5 seconds.
#
# Please review the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syslinux
# The wiki provides further configuration examples

DEFAULT arch
PROMPT 0        # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt
TIMEOUT 50
# You can create syslinux keymaps with the keytab-lilo tool
#KBDMAP de.ktl

# Menu Configuration
# Either menu.c32 or vesamenu32.c32 must be copied to /boot/syslinux
UI menu.c32
#UI vesamenu.c32

# Refer to http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/menu
MENU TITLE Arch Linux
#MENU BACKGROUND splash.png
MENU COLOR border       30;44   #40ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR title        1;36;44 #9033ccff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR sel          7;37;40 #e0ffffff #20ffffff all
MENU COLOR unsel        37;44   #50ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR help         37;40   #c0ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout_msg  37;40   #80ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout      1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR msg07        37;40   #90ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR tabmsg       31;40   #30ffffff #00000000 std

# boot sections follow
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

LABEL arch
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/md126p1 rw
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img

LABEL archfallback
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/md126p1 rw
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux-fallback.img

#LABEL windows
#        MENU LABEL Windows
#        COM32 chain.c32
#        APPEND hd0 1

LABEL hdt
        MENU LABEL HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)
        COM32 hdt.c32

LABEL reboot
        MENU LABEL Reboot
        COM32 reboot.c32

LABEL poweroff
        MENU LABEL Poweroff
        COM32 poweroff.c32

Upon rebooting, the BIOS indicates the RAID array is rebuilding... again.

2 hours later... the array has been rebuilt. It shows as Normal during boot, but I still end up in the emergency shell.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Last edited by dakota (2021-07-18 00:10:42)

loqs · 2021-07-17 23:42:10

Have you read Install Arch Linux with Fake RAID? If it is Fake RAID have you considered using software RAID instead?

dakota · 2021-07-18 00:10:18

loqs wrote:

Have you read Install Arch Linux with Fake RAID? If it is Fake RAID have you considered using software RAID instead?

Grrrr. I have not seen that page before, but thank you very much for pointing it out to me. I believe I have fake RAID.

I had no idea it would be so involved. Since I have installed software RAID before (on UEFI, not BIOS), I think I'll take that route.

Cheers,

progandy · 2021-07-18 06:41:04

I think you did most of what the fake raid article mentions, the only thing missing seems to be mdadm_udev in your mkinitcpio HOOKS array.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-07-17 22:52:52

[SOLVED] Installing Arch on Hardware RAID

#2 2021-07-17 23:42:10

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Arch on Hardware RAID

#3 2021-07-18 00:10:18

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Arch on Hardware RAID

#4 2021-07-18 06:41:04

Re: [SOLVED] Installing Arch on Hardware RAID

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