Daren, I'm replying to the list directly, although I'm not subscribed. If anyone has replies to this message, they're probably better off going to this list where everyone can benefit. With that said...
I wrote a somewhat cryptic guide on setting up a root RAID for Linux Sparc64 on my Ultra 30. You can find the most up-to-date version here: http://www.doorbot.com/guides/linux/sparc64/rootraid/ I used Linux 2.4.18 with the RAID 1 patch for Sparc64 (to work around the egcs64 miscompile). Below is a copy of revision 0.2 of the guide: <begin ramblings> Mirrored Root RAID On Sparc64 Linux Summary: Experiences configuring a Sun Ultra 30 to boot off of a mirrored software RAID under Debian Linux with kernel version 2.4.18. As part of my migration to a Sun Ultra 30 from my previous Slackware-based server, I wanted to utilize the Linux built-in software raid ("md") to protect my root (and boot) partition. I made many mistakes along the way, and this guide will not attempt to recount all of them. It will attempt to explain how I (finally) got my UltraSparc to boot off of a software RAID1, and point out a few of the pitfalls so readers can avoid them. My chosen operating system is Debian "Woody" running the Linux kernel version 2.4.18. Newer versions of the Linux kernel are available, and you may chose to use one of these instead. To start, I did a base install of Debian, being sure to install the latest versions of the packages as recommended by apt and dselect. The RAID devices will be built from partitions on two 18 GB SCSI drives, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. The layout is as follows: * /dev/md0 - /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1 - RAID1 (Mirror) - Mounted as / (root directory) * /dev/md1 - /dev/sda4, /dev/sdb4 - RAID0 (Stripe) - Mounted as /tmp * /dev/md2 - /dev/sda5, /dev/sdb5 - RAID1 (Mirror) - Mounted as /var/log * /dev/md3 - /dev/sda6, /dev/sdb6 - RAID0 (Stripe) - Mounted as /var (mounts before /var/log) * /dev/md4 - /dev/sda7, /dev/sdb7 - RAID0 (Stripe) - Mounted as /usr * /dev/md5 - /dev/sda8, /dev/sdb8 - RAID0 (Stripe) - Mounted as /home * swap - /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb2 - Striped swap (each use "priority=0" as a mount option) I started out by getting the Woody install image on CD. In OBP, while the memory is counting, hit L1-A (Stop-A), then "boot cdrom" to start the Debian install. The ISO I downloaded would not boot normally with SILO; use the "rescue" feature and the system will boot off the CD as expected. I partitioned both drives so they both had identical partition maps. Note that partition 3 usually fills the whole disk. When this was done, I selected /dev/sda8 as my root partition, and installed Debian to it. To compile a kernel on Debian-Sparc64, you need to install a few packages first: egcs64, libncurses-dev, dpkg-dev, and kernel-package as well as the "regular" compiler tools. In all likelihood GCC and friends are already installed, but you will need to install egcs64 to compile the 64-bit kernel for Sparc. You can install the required packages with the following command: apt-get install egcs64 libncurses-dev dpkg-dev kernel-package You can also add these packages through dselect, using the '/' key to find them by name. If you're adventurous, GCC 3.2.1 may work; it is available as a package from Debian "Sid" ("unstable" as of this writing). Next I downloaded the kernel sources. I wanted to use 2.4.20, which was the latest available, but I always got "mcount" errors on all the modules. After I finished with this project, I stumbled upon a solution (http://lists.debian.org/debian-sparc/2002/debian-sparc-200212/msg00124.html) on the Debian-Sparc Mailing List. I ended up with version 2.4.18, but you may end up with a different version. You can get the kernel sources via apt, using a command such as "apt-get source kernel-image-2.4.18" but I opted to download the source directly from the Linux Kernel Archives. Be sure to get the "full" source and not just one of the patches. I extracted them (tar xzvf file.tgz) to /usr/src/linux-2.4.18 and then changed to that directory. If you're running any kernel prior to 2.4.20, you will need to patch the RAID1 support in the kernel, as egcs64 miscompiles it on Sparc, and will lead to an "oops" when you try to write to your new software raid. Here is the patch (http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=103075370821523&w=2) from the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Configure your kernel as necessary and then compile it; you may wish to refer to the Debian FAQ on building custom kernels. Be sure to answer "yes" to RAID support, and verify that RAID1 support is compiled into the kernel (instead of a module). When you have finished with the kernel configuration, save the configuration, and run the "make-kpkg" command with the appropriate arguments to build the new kernel. Next, install the kernel using the "dpkg" command. If you already have RAID support enabled in the kernel, we can configure the RAID devices. Otherwise, reboot the system. Save the following RAID configuration (/etc/raidtab): # / raiddev /dev/md0 raid-level 1 nr-raid-disks 2 nr-spare-disks 0 chunk-size 4 persistent-superblock 1 device /dev/sda1 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdb1 raid-disk 1 # /tmp raiddev /dev/md1 raid-level 0 nr-raid-disks 2 nr-spare-disks 0 chunk-size 16 persistent-superblock 1 device /dev/sda4 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdb4 raid-disk 1 # /var/log raiddev /dev/md2 raid-level 1 nr-raid-disks 2 nr-spare-disks 0 chunk-size 4 persistent-superblock 1 device /dev/sda5 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdb5 raid-disk 1 # /var raiddev /dev/md3 raid-level 0 nr-raid-disks 2 nr-spare-disks 0 chunk-size 16 persistent-superblock 1 device /dev/sda6 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdb6 raid-disk 1 # /usr raiddev /dev/md4 raid-level 0 nr-raid-disks 2 nr-spare-disks 0 chunk-size 16 persistent-superblock 1 device /dev/sda7 raid-disk 0 device /dev/sdb7 raid-disk 1 # /home #raiddev /dev/md5 # raid-level 0 # nr-raid-disks 2 # nr-spare-disks 0 # chunk-size 16 # persistent-superblock 1 # device /dev/sda8 # raid-disk 0 # device /dev/sdb8 # raid-disk 1 Note that /home will not be created until we are finished building the rest of the RAID devices. Later, you will need to enable /home by uncommenting the lines below "# /home" by removing the pound sign/hash sign ("#") at the beginning of each line. Now we want to make the actual RAID drives and mount them. Run the commands: mkraid /dev/md0 mke2fs -j /dev/md0 Adjust for each RAID device. This will create the RAIDs and filesystems on the devices. You can check the RAID build status with the following command: cat /proc/mdstat To configure SILO in preparation for the root RAID, I added an "append=md=0,/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1" line to /etc/silo.conf and verified that the root partition was /dev/sda1 (it might work with /dev/md0, but I don't see how SILO would know /dev/md0 pointed to /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1). My silo.conf looks like this: partition=1 append="md=0,/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1" timeout=0 root=/dev/sda1 image=1/vmlinuz label=linux read-only In the mean time, if you need to reboot for some reason, you can enter "disk:8 linux root=/dev/sda8" in OBP and/or "linux root=/dev/sda8" at the SILO prompt to get back to our temporary boot partition. Install SILO into the boot block as follows: silo -f Mount the root device under a suitable directory; I used /mnt but any empty directory will suffice (but keep it simple). Mount the rest of the devices under /mnt so what will end up being /usr is currently /mnt/usr and so on. Now, we will want to copy all of our data over to the new RAID devices. This can be accomplished a number of ways (usually involving the cp -cipR dir1 dir2 dir3 --targetdir=/mnt command). Be careful that you don't copy /mnt into /mnt/mnt or you will find your free disk space vanish. Alternately, you can use the "failed disk" method (http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-sparc&m=101787980731878&w=2) to get the data onto the RAID devices. Reboot and in OBP select "disk:1" as the primary boot device and your new RAID should boot. Finally, adjust /etc/raidtab to enable the /home RAID device, make the RAID, and then the filesystem. You should now be able to mount it and copy the contents of /home to it. <end ramblings> Hopefully you find this helpful! - Philip L. McMahon
