LL 2.0 install on AMD A6/A88 machine W/RAID 1 - LL Installer Crashes

[rentwist]

End of the road for LL attempt on my HTPC/NAS AMD/ASrock box.  Bought W7 Ultimate as an online DL and got it working with the AMD RAID without too much fuss, just needed to point windows to the AMD Bolton chipset drivers at install time and away we went.

Guess I will be confined to using LL on my (this) old Dell laptop, runs well and "just works" (as W7 does on the HTPC/NAS I recently built).

Syba RAID card going back too, it cost more than the W7 Ultimate I bought!

[rentwist]

Now going to try a Syba RAID card, had no luck with mdadm thus far beyond getting it all setup and LL installed on MD0 using a live USB boot only to have that all go away once I reboot using the machine disk(s), grub rescue (or was it recovery?) prompt was the result.  If the RAID card doesn't work, I will probably give up (enough is enough), as much as I like how far Linux (particularly LL) has come snce I last tried it, if Windows 7 will get the job done I like myself enough to know when to stop banging my head against the wall.  LL does not have enough of a following (based in my experience here) to get answers or suggestions for certain "roads less travelled" (RAID for instance).  The other observation I have it that one has to be very careful when trying things found on interwebz searches as they can be very out of date (and no longer apply) and/or are specific to the flavor of Linux used.  In other words the world (linux version) people speak from sometimes can be very different than when trying to do the same thing from a different world (Linux version).

Linux in my view still can be very "extensive CLI knowledge required" when any deviation from what "just works" is encountered.

Think I might be able to get the job done with Ubuntu, wondering if the LL desktop/GUI can be used with Ubuntu?

Finally, I am wondering if perhaps Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (proper) has mdadm BUILT IN to the kernel whereas LL does not have mdadm BUILT IN (think this might be why I have not been able to get the job done)?  Somewhere I read about this mdadm "built-in" notion and it has me thinking.  Ubuntu seems to have some RAID stuff built-in to their desktop/GUI leading me to believe the RAID stuff is intrinsic.  One can try so many different things (or at least I have in trying to make HW or SW RAID work) not knowing which might lead to success or another dead end.

Regards,

Robert

[rentwist]

Hi Scott,

Yes, I updated to the current BIOS last week.

Regarding the other two suggestions, I have the RAID installation guide and the AMD BIOS guide as well, been all over, up and down the ASRock support stuff.

I have given up on the BIOS RAID thing and am concentrating on the Linux SoftRAID stuff using mdadm.  Repeated the mdadm stuff I did previously (link I posted a guide to), got my two disks in an array and let them sync (a 4 hour or so process), this was while booted from the live USB and preinstall.

BTW, If LL is installed on one of the disks, mdadm complains and will not proceed, guessing that is because the OS is currently using the disk or partition on it.  That is why I used the live USB and performed mdadm installation steps BEFORE installing LL.

Okay, so now I am at the LL install beginning steps and trying to figure out how to get LL to install on logical drive raid1.  The installer complains "No root file system defined.  Please correct this in the partitioning menu."  The current partition is a ext3 partition (I think) and marked for RAID (0xfd type using fdisk).

So I need to make two new (additional?) partitions, one for root and one for swap.  Can anyone give me their partitions sizes for these on their LL installation?  Use ext4?  Preferably on a 2 TB drive (assuming this might make a difference).  One posting I found says 10 Gb min for root and 2-4 Gb for swap.  I seem to recall (from my many LL install attempts) something like 23.xx Gb for root (or was it 32.xx Gb?) and not sure for swap.  Also wondering if I can do this when the current partition is using all available space.  Will Gparted pull from the existing one to provide space for the two I need to create?  Also, seem to recall that the partitions were numbered sda5 for the swap, not sure for the root, sda2?  Root needs to be mounted as "/" I read.

I am feeling my way along in the dark here as a relatively newbie to Linux and LL but think I am on the right track.  I just don't want to blow away my mdadm array in this process of getting the partitions right in order to proceed with the LL install.  I have already proven (multiple times!) that just letting LL format the disk being installed to blows away the mdadm RAID1 setup I did before it.  Just need to get the partitioning right, preserving the raid1 partition (although probably downsizing for the other two new partitions) and then install using the "something else" option.

Help!

Thanks and Regards,

Robert

[Scott]

Hi Rentwist

I poked around the ASRock website and found the following on the FM2A88M Extreme 4+. Maybe something below will be helpful?

Are you running the current BIOS?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/FM2A88M%20Extreme4+/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

Is the ASRock RAID guide any help?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/FM2A88M%20Extreme4+/?cat=Manual

Support page for the FM2A88M Extreme 4+
http://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/FM2A88M%20Extreme4+/index.asp?cat=Download

[rentwist]

Guess like Billy Idol, I am dancing with myself! 

Had no luck with BIOS RAID and no luck creating mdadm RAID with one of the disks having an LL install present.  Trying live USB setup of mdadm (again) and hoping that there is some way to tell LL to install on logical drive md0 instead of one of the disks themselves.

[rentwist]

Selecting LVM after setting up AMD BIOS RAID did not work, or at least errors out and prevents proceeding, will post that error.

The mdadm did not work (at least yet), got it all going with the live USB (and waited the 4-5 hours for the sync) but when I went and did the install of the OS, it broke the SW raid and the OS complained about a "recursive partition" or some such on both disks.  If I end up having to go with mdadm RAID, I guess the next thing to try is to install the OS and then do the many commands (in the link I posted previously) to get mdadm going on top of the installed OS.  I did try this initially but had permission problems.  When I encountered this I thought it was because the partition was in use by the OS, thinking now it might be a sudo thing or require root access (which I had to do for mdadm at some point during the process with the live USB, I forget what specifically).

Still hoping there is a way to make the BIOS RAID work but I am out of ideas for things to try.  The OS install overwrites the partitioning the BIOS RAID creates which breaks the array.

Frustrating.

[rentwist]

Made good progress with mdadm after booting from live usb image and following the guide I linked to.  Volumes are syncing now (long process).  The fstab and mdadm.conf updates would not save, guessing because those files were active with the OS and changes to them could not be saved therefore.  Saved copies to the desktop in hopes of ultimately replacing them on the final LL install.

However, did some more research and am not convinced that the A88X Bolton D4 RAID implementation is not a hardware based RAID and therefore more desirable/better performing than Linux soft RAID using mdadm.  To that end, wondering if a LL install over the AMD BIOS RAID would work if I used Linux LVM.  No clue but I am searching for the right answer (best performance in a RAID1 implementation).  As I posted previously, RAID did not work otherwise, the LL install broke the array/partitioning done with AMD BIOS RAID.

Would love some input from others who have successfully navigated this precarious path but guess I am doing alright with researching and trying things based on what I find.

Regards,

Robert

[rentwist]

Thinking I am going to need to boot from live USB and start over after implementing mdadm (will it be preserved with a fresh LL install afterwards?).  There is quite a bit more to it than what I read up until now led me to believe:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-creating-software-raid-one-arrays/

[rentwist]

Having trouble with mdadm though, appears that it is more than just mdadm --create as the post on askubuntu I was following indicates.

Anyone familiar with mdadm who could provide some guidance?  Fresh LL install with two 2TB disks visible, sda and sdb.  Hoping I do not have to start the OS install over (and had tried that unsuccessfully previously with BIOS RAID) but am willing to do whatever it takes!

Regards,

Robert

[rentwist]

Nearly as I can tell, the USB live media.

[Scott]

Rentwist, so now that's it's working, what was the fix?

[rentwist]

SUCCESS!!!  LL installed (typing this on that machine in fact!), RAID to come next session.  Add'l SW new menu is nice too!   Hats off to the team!

(Still) loving LL!

Regards,

Robert

[rentwist]

Hi Scott,

Motherboard is ASRock FM2A88M Extreme 4+ running an A6-6400 3.9GHz CPU and 4 GB of RAM.

From some research online, I read (Ubuntu) not to use the BIOS RAID and use "mdadm" after installing on one disk.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/522945/ubuntu-14-04-desktop-and-raid

I thought the BIOS RAID would be more "HW RAID" and the "mdadm" was more a software RAID but also read that both are "FakeRAID" and use the CPU to do the work.

Also, great call on the live USB install, for some reason the Atheros Wifi was recognized right off the bat and (fingers crossed) install is proceeding as I write this.

Will report back with results.

Thanks!

Regards,

Robert

[Scott]

Hi Rentwist

What's the make/model of your motherboard? I'll take a look at the manual online and see if I can help out.

~Scott

[rentwist]

Found out how to make a live USB stick, Win32 Disk Imager.  Also found some stuff on RAID on Ubuntu, hopefully it will help with RAID on LL.