no volume groups found on boot

Jalle_88 · 2012-01-14 14:59:11

Hello

I'm something of a newbie when it comes to computers, so please be patient with me. I've installed arch linux on a raid5-array with a lvm on it, where I have separate filesystems for /var, /tmp, /usr and so on. /boot is on raid1, pretty much all per the guide on software raid in the arch wiki. Installation goes flawlessly, but I can never boot into the new system (I've tried a lot of times...).

It gets to the "running mdadm hook" part ok, and then "running lvm2 hook" but the it just says no volume groups found... Then it waits for the root device, which it doesn't find of course, and then it drops to an initramfs shell, at wich point I turn it off and die a little inside...

if I boot the live-usb and do vgchange -ay, I can see all the logical volumes on my volumegroup.

So the question is, I suppose, how much of an expert do you have to be to make this work? Is there any point in me continuing to try this, or should I just try to put the root on a raid1-array instead and hope that's easier? This is an old spare computer we're talking about, so there's no data on it or anything, and I don't really need it, I'm in it more for the challenge, but I feel this time I'm in way over my head.

thisoldman · 2012-01-14 17:43:14

I am very uneducated about raid systems, but your mention of a separate /usr filesystem made me remember this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1035335.

Hope it helps.

Jalle_88 · 2012-01-15 22:27:14

Yes I saw that somewhere, that having a separate /usr isn't recomended. So I've reinstalled now without it, but it makes no difference. Still just "no volume groups found"

/dev/zero · 2012-01-15 22:46:19

What have you got in your mkinitcpio.conf, in terms of modules, hooks, and so forth?

When you get dropped to the ramfs shell, that can actually be a useful place for doing some debugging. Eg, you might be able to make things work manually by playing with the lvm commands, combined with appropriate calls to mount and (iirc) switch_root. Such efforts, even if they fail, can guide the next round of troubleshooting.

Jalle_88 · 2012-01-16 01:34:11

In my mkinitcpiio.conf I have raid1 and raid5 in modules (allthough I think raid5 doesn't exist, or some message to that effect flashes by).

As for hooks I have mdadm and lvm2, and the rest are the ones that are there by default.

Now I have just spent a few hours trying to install with this setup instead:

100M raid1 for /boot
60G raid5 (no lvm) for /root
rest raid5 with lvm for other stuff (/var, /tmp, /home... )

but this fails in pretty much the same place: running hook mdadm, running hook lvm2, no volum grous found, and then 2unable to determine major/minor number of root device" after which I'm dropped to the ramfs shell.

Am I supposed to be able to use mdadm from the ramfs shell? Is that what the hook does? Because I can't... Could it be loaded as a module?

But again the question remains, seeing how I'm pretty new to linux, should I even attempt to do this? I set up a freebsd box with raidz on zfs, and I thought it would be easier, or at least not that much more complicated with linux, but it seems you have to know a lot more than I do in order to make this work.

I pretty sure I've had arch installed on this computer before with root on raid5, but that was when I was running ubuntu as well , so I booted from there...

Effrafax · 2012-02-28 13:53:34

HI, I've been struggling with a similar, if not the same, issue, which I logged as a post here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135802

Essentially, I have four discs in a RAID0, with LVM on top for /, /home and a data partition (/boot is on a non-RAID partition). The system was running nicely until pacman updated the linux kernel to 3.2.6, when I go the same error as you: no logical volumes found.

From the rescue shell, I finally discovered that the RAID was not started (cat /proc/mdstat shows no arrays). I've fiddled around with rc.conf and mkinitcpio.conf but cannot get past this. I've even reinstalled Arch from scratch, only to have it fail again when the kernel is updated. Going back to the installed kernel (3.0.3 from memory) doesn't fix the issue.

Did you manage to get anywhere with this?

Last edited by Effrafax (2012-02-28 13:54:13)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-14 14:59:11

no volume groups found on boot

#2 2012-01-14 17:43:14

Re: no volume groups found on boot

#3 2012-01-15 22:27:14

Re: no volume groups found on boot

#4 2012-01-15 22:46:19

Re: no volume groups found on boot

#5 2012-01-16 01:34:11

Re: no volume groups found on boot

#6 2012-02-28 13:53:34

Re: no volume groups found on boot

Board footer