Thread https://lists.opensuse.org/yast-devel/2016-04/msg00019.html explains my situation (I hope). YaST2 simply does not support creating in a degraded state. As a consequence, apparently I must use mdadm. Its man page is a mile long. I'm having a hard time determining what is required to do what I wish done, prepare a disk with 10 degraded md devices, in advance on one machine, for subsequent 42.1 and TW installation in another machine, minimizing downtime in the target machine. My proposed creation commands are as follows: mdadm -Cv /dev/md0 -e 1.2 --homehost=fi965 -l 1 -N r130tmp -n /dev/sdb8 missing mdadm --create /dev/md1 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r131root --raid-devices=/dev/sdb9 missing mdadm --create /dev/md2 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r132root --raid-devices=/dev/sdb10 missing mdadm --create /dev/md3 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r133root --raid-devices=/dev/sdb11 missing mdadm --create /dev/md4 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r134root --raid-devices=/dev/sdb12 missing mdadm --create /dev/md5 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r135srv --raid-devices=/dev/sdb13 missing mdadm --create /dev/md6 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r136ulcl --raid-devices=/dev/sdb14 missing mdadm --create /dev/md7 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r137home --raid-devices=/dev/sdb15 missing mdadm --create /dev/md8 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r138pub --raid-devices=/dev/sdb16 missing mdadm --create /dev/md9 --metadata=1.2 --homehost=fi965 --level=1 --name=r139isos --raid-devices=/dev/sdb17 missing I find the mdadm man page entirely unclear whether I should want the partitions to be of type 0xDA or 0xFD. Comments and suggestions welcome. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org