If you make your RAID partitions type 86 the latest RAID patches against
2.1.124 (also works on 2.1.125) will allow you to boot from a floppy. The
kernel will automagically recognize the RAID partitions and mount them
itself (withouth the need for any rc.d scripts).
This will allow you to RAID your entire root partition but you DO have to
boot from floppy.
NOTE: I've not done this quite yet on my system. I am using the 86
partitions to automount two RAID5 sets though (just not the root partition
yet).
-----Original Message-----
From: CN Liu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Linux-Raid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 1998 9:55 AM
Subject: My Example
At 12:37 1998/10/13 +0100, Bruno Prior wrote:
>Briefly, to summarize the steps you need to take:
>
>In raidtools-0.90: ./autogen.sh; make; make install; make install_dev
>
>Create /etc/raidtab (you can base this on raidtab.sample in raidtools-0.90)
>
>mkraid -f /dev/md* (to initialize the RAID devices. Do each md device
>separately, don't type md* literally. This destroys all data on constituent
>partitions.)
>
>fdisk each disk with partitions which will be included in a RAID device,
and
>set those partitions to type 0xfe
>
>Use tar to copy whichever bits of the existing filesystem you want to move
>to the RAID devices (I assume you want to do this as you were looking at
>Root-RAID)
>
>Edit /etc/fstab (or RAID-root/mountpoint/etc/fstab if you are switching to
>root-RAID) to indicate mountpoints of RAID devices (remember the kernel
>cannot be on a RAID0/4/5 partition, so you will probably want a small
>unRAIDed /boot partition for your kernel images)
>
>If you are switching to root-RAID, edit /etc/lilo.conf so that root points
>to the RAID device, then run lilo.
>
>Reboot. You should be in business.
I fail to catch up with some of the above Bruno's instructions as I am too
slow.
I have 1 running IBM disk (/dev/sda) and 3 to-be-raided Seagate (/dev/sdb,
/dev/sdc, and /dev/sdd). All are connected to AHA 2940U/WB. I have built
RAID5 kernel based on Slackware in the running sda disk and rebooted.
My goal is to:
1. have ada retired.
2. create RAID5 from sdb2, sdc2, sdd2.
3. place zImage in sdb1.
sdb1/zImage is the real boot image.
4. have the minimum number of files/directories in sdb1 in order to gain
the maximum benefit of RAID.
5 mount /dev/md0 as root file system (/).
What I have successfully done are:
1. fdisk /dev/sdb:
change id to 0xfd (as suggested by Martin Galant)
create sdb1, size = 1MB
create sdb2, size = 4.5GB
fdisk /dev/sdc:
change id to 0xfd (as suggested by Martin Galant)
create sdc1, size = 1MB
create sdc2, size = 4.5GB
fdisk /dev/sdd:
change id to 0xfd (as suggested by Martin Galant)
create sdd1, size = 1MB
create sdd2, size = 4.5GB
2. mke2fs -c /dev/sdb1
mke2fs -c /dev/sdc1
mke2fs -c /dev/sdd1
mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cp /zImage /mnt
umount /mnt
3. vi /etc/raidtab:
raiddev /dev/md0
raid-level 5
nr-raid-disks 3
nr-spare-disks 0
chunk-size 16
device /dev/sdb2
raid-disk 0
device /dev/sdc2
raid-disk 1
device /dev/sdd2
raid-disk 2
4. mkraid -f /dev/md0
mke2fs -c /dev/md0
5. mount -t ext2 /dev/md0 /mnt
tar -pzc bin boot etc home lib root sbin shlib usr var >/mnt/all.tgz
cd /mnt
tar -xzf all.tgz
6. vi /mnt/etc/fstab:
/dev/md0 / ext2 defaults 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
7. vi /mnt/etc/lilo.conf:
boot=/dev/sdb1
message=/boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout=60
vga=normal
image=/zImage
root=/dev/md0
label=Linux
read-only
Oooooops! Then, I don't know how to proceed! My problems arise all because
I can not put zImage in RAIDed partition and expect the system to boot from
it.
My problems are:
1. If I tell AHA-2940U/WB that I want disk 1 (ie., sdb) as the boot disk,
can it boot? Remember I have sdb1 unRAIDed and sdb2 RAIDed. Can the SCSI
adapter know which partition to load boot codes?
2. Now that I booted from sda, can I issue command "lilo" right now?
3. I know if the system can boot somehow, it can not see the RAID before
command
/sbin/raidstart -a
is issued. Sure I can put this command in rc.S. But, where should I put
etc/*? In sdb1 or md0 or nowhere?
4. I have nothing in /mnt/dev/. How do I create /mnt/dev/md0 and the other
devices like console, sda, sdb, hda... ? Can I run /mnt/dev/MAKEDEV ...
right now?
I wonder my goal might not be appropriately set. Can anyone adjust it for
me and provide the step-by-step procedures like I wrote?
Thank you all!
CN
