[opensuse] boot AMD RAID
Has anyone successfully installed and booted from a system on an AMD RAID? I wonder if more is needed is ensuring that "dmraid -ay" is called in the initrd, since the 13.2 installer recognises the arrays. This is the firmware RAID that people derogatively call "fake raid". On my first attempt, the system did install, but it failed to boot properly; I forgot which error I got. Regards, Xen. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 12/14/2015 02:59 AM, Xen wrote:
Has anyone successfully installed and booted from a system on an AMD RAID?
I wonder if more is needed is ensuring that "dmraid -ay" is called in the initrd, since the 13.2 installer recognises the arrays.
This is the firmware RAID that people derogatively call "fake raid". On my first attempt, the system did install, but it failed to boot properly; I forgot which error I got.
Regards, Xen.
I've used dmraid for years, (with mirrorred /boot, /, /home, (/var and /srv in the older days -- and even swap). Primarily on nVidia chips, but there is no reason AMD wouldn't be supported as well. The dmraid module (dm_mirror) was included by default in all older kernel initrds. I do not know the status on openSuSE 13.2 or Leap. I do know that Arch no longer includes the dm_mirror hooks by default, and you must specify the dmraid module be included when creating your initrd. Does anyone know whether the dmraid module is included by default in 13.2? You can easily test: $ lsmod | grep dm_mirror If it isn't there, then # modprobe dm_mirror If that works, then # dmraid -ay If your arrays are assembled, then in the past, you could simply use: # depmod -a to update the module dependencies (that was before systemd). I haven't looked at what opensuse needs now with grub2, etc.. That info should be a simple search away. Good luck. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
Hi, my apologies, I hadn't seen your reply. David C. Rankin schreef op 23-12-2015 1:59:
I've used dmraid for years, (with mirrorred /boot, /, /home, (/var and /srv in the older days -- and even swap). Primarily on nVidia chips, but there is no reason AMD wouldn't be supported as well. The dmraid module (dm_mirror) was included by default in all older kernel initrds. I do not know the status on openSuSE 13.2 or Leap. I do know that Arch no longer includes the dm_mirror hooks by default, and you must specify the dmraid module be included when creating your initrd.
So the issue is that I probably have to create the initrd from the install medium when it is chrooted. I could "lsmod | grep dm_" to see what dm_ modules are loaded. The installation system automatically loads them, but the initrd later doesn't contain it. Then there is probably some "lsinitrd" command (I hope!) to check the contents of the initrd. or "lsinitramfs". Then if the module is not loaded [present], I have work to do. The problem is that I will never get as far as to use those commands in my booting system, if the initrd doesn't do the required work, since I will never get a prompt. Unless I get a initramfs prompt. But I don't think I have ever accomplished /continuing the booting/ from the initramfs prompt.
If your arrays are assembled, then in the past, you could simply use:
# depmod -a
Do you mean doing that prior the generating the new initrd, or after? Or in a running system? Or in a system that can already boot? Thanks for the pointer though.
to update the module dependencies (that was before systemd). I haven't looked at what opensuse needs now with grub2, etc.. That info should be a simple search away. Good luck.
The peculiar thing is that you would think Grub2 also needs to know the raid layout in order to read its boot files. I think there are various modules related to array booting. But I haven't attempted anything more curious than a mirrored /boot partition. Which obviously can be read even without the dmraid driver being loaded (this was linux software raid). Typically a RAID 10 is unreadable without the raid driver. Hence, grub could not load a initrd file OR kernel without the driver. BUT in my recollection it DID -- it just halted during the boot phase. During the initrd phase. [[ Currently though I am not running any Linux system save via VirtualBox, and my interest today is purely educational for the moment I will need it. ]]. [[ I *might* be interested in running Windows inside a Linux host, but I would probably at this point choose something small and easy like Ubuntu even though I don't think it works well with this same raid, but then there's also linux software raid. I am sure thought that the time will come that I will need this. ]]. Thanks for your feedback in any case. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 8:23 AM, Xen
The peculiar thing is that you would think Grub2 also needs to know the raid layout in order to read its boot files.
BIOS is expected to hide individual disks and expose single RAID device. But when grub-install runs, it also needs to know that. grub2 recognizes mdadm Intel RAID controllers; SUSE also has patch to detect mdadm with DDF. If you are using dmraid, you most likely need /boot/grub2/device.map that declares dmraid device as BIOS disk. I do not know if YaST creates it automatically (I do not have any system where I can test it anyway). -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (3)
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Andrei Borzenkov -
David C. Rankin -
Xen