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Scotty49
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 86
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 Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:08 am Post subject: Gentoo and vt8237 SATA RAID |
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Hello!
Here's my new challenge for all your wisdom  :
I'm trying to install gentoo on a RAID 0 array, which is partitioned like that:
part1: NTFS
part2: ext2 (boot)
part3: swap
part4: reiser (root)
I created part 2 - 4 using Partition Magic under windows. The RAID 0 array consists of two 250 GB IBM hard drives connected to the vt8237 south bridge controller of my mobo. Using the gentoo 2004.1 livecd I get the following results with fdisk:
| Code: | livecd root # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hde: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 * 1 58004 465917098+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hde2 58005 58009 40162+ 83 Linux
/dev/hde3 58010 58075 530145 82 Linux swap
/dev/hde4 58076 60802 21904627+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/hdg: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk /dev/hdg doesn't contain a valid partition table
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OK, it sees my array as two single disks - not unusual. The strange this is what happens, if I try the following:
| Code: | livecd root # fdisk /dev/hde1
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 58003.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/hde1: 477.0 GB, 477099108864 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 58003 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1p1 ? 110102 110577 3815730+ 6b Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hde1p2 ? 113965 200777 697317940+ 75 PC/IX
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hde1p3 ? 106997 106998 1286+ 41 PPC PReP Boot
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hde1p4 175983 175986 26459 0 Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order
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Seems like hde1 is bigger than the whole disc  . There are no other suitable devices in my /dev (no /dev/sda, ...), so I don't know how to access my array the right way. The right modules are loaded (libata, sata_via). As there are important files on the NTFS partition I don't want to play around and try out this and that. Is it completely impossible to install gentoo on this configuration or did I just oversee something?
Note:
1. Yes, I know, S-ATA RAID controllers like my one are inefficient and bad to handle.
2. I searched all the forums for a solution and couldn't find anything.
I hope someone can help me, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Thanks in advance,
Scotty |
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JudgeNik
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Bolzano, Italy
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| Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:38 am Post subject: |
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When you "ls" is /dev you see more than one hd* right?
When fdisking you should be fdisking the disk itself not the partition
e.g.
| Code: | | bash# fdisk /dev/hde |
I haven't played with RAID in Gentoo...yet so I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the hde1 partition is showing up as bigger than the 250gb because it is actually being smart and realising it is a raided partition
And the drives /dev/hde and *guessing* /dev/hdg are showing up seperately because they are seperate drives and gentoo isn't stupid.
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See the famous Niko Roberts at http://www.nikoroberts.com |
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Scotty49
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:50 am Post subject: |
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Hello!
Thanks for the answer! Is is correct, that I have more than one drive in /dev/hd*. Of course, there's hda and hdb for the CD drives and then the two drives mentioned in my post. I know, that I should fdisk the whole disk and not only /dev/hde1, I tried that just because of curiosity.
I don't think, that hde1 is smar enough to realize it's raided, because the values in fdisk are pretty strange. Anyway, you're right concerning hde and hdg being the individual drives. But how in the world should I now access the whole raid array? Writing to either hde or hdg would probably damage everything and hde1 looks so strange that I better keep my finger off. 
Any ideas? |
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JudgeNik
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Bolzano, Italy
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| Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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As I have said I haven't played with RAID much so I don't know how to access the RAID partition if hde1 isn't it. There aren't any other hd* in /dev ?
Just out of curiosity why have you RAIDed two 250GB drives?
I have three 200GB drives (1 IDE, 2 SATA) and haven't touched the RAID functions since I brought them, I don't see the point as they are big enough to store any groups of files that I have.
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Scotty49
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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No, unfortunately no more hd*s.
Raiding the two drives is said to increase speed quite a bit. And also I rather like to see one 500 gig HD instead of two 250 gig ones . |
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tomk
Bodhisattva
Joined: 23 Sep 2003
Posts: 7221
Location: Sat in front of my computer
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RockHound
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 11 Nov 2002
Posts: 112
Location: Hamburg, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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Just out of curiosity, could this be a software raid issue? Since the raid is provided via the south bridge... Hmm... Just wondering if one has to set up /dev/md0 or something like that...
Greetings,
Martin |
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Scotty49
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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AFAIK, the vt8237 is a halfway software controller but nevertheless can't be managed by the linux software raid drivers. Instead I found this great topic and am now able to access my raid array at least when booting from another hd, which is better than nothing.
Scotty |
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