A pleasant day to everyone.

I have a new PC Server which I would like to be configured using Debian distro. It is an Intel Pentium 4 HTT, Extreme Edition, on an Intel D955XBK Motherboard with 3 SATA Hard Disks, which I wanted to have it on a Software Raid 5. Since, Debian Sarge 3.1 does not recognize SATA drives, I downloaded the Etch 3, with a kernel-2.6.16-2-686.

At installation, my 3 SATA drives can be recognized and can be configured on Raid 5, but when the last part of the installation comes, wherein the GRUB or LILO boot loader should be written on the MBR, it is here where my headache comes in, writing of the boot loader is unsuccessful.

I have been googling but couldn't find a "howto" for the said setup.

Is there someone out there who could possibly help me out on this or maybe give me some insights and suggestions?

I have been using Debian Sarge for almost a year now, and am very happy with it, specially with its security and maintenance, not to mention its stability. My 3 other servers are all running on Debian and I will also install it on my 2 other servers once, I'm done with this new one. (The 5 servers are all using IDE harddisks)

It sounds like you may be suffering from a protection error. Did you install debian on sda1? if so, did you turn the boot flag on when you formatted the partition?

Thanks.

I created the software RAID 5 from the Debian installer. The partitions of the drives are:
/dev/sdX1 - 0.5GB - Linux raid
/dev/sdX2 - 57.5GB - Linux raid
/dev/sdX3 - 2GB - Linux raid
/dev/sdX4 - 100GB - Linux raid

and the partitions for the Linux Raid using Raid 5:
/dev/md0 - /boot
/dev/md1 - /
/dev/md2 - swap
/dev/md3 - /var

Grub won't boot from/install onto raid you need LILO for doing that I believe you get the option to install lilo if you type in then enter key expert at the opening boot: prompt when starting the install. Now having never used raid I have no clue how you setup lilo on it I would suggest using "lilo setup on raid" as a good place to start having put that phrase into your favorite search engine alternatively you may want to send an email to debian-user@lists.debian.org I have seen this come up on there a couple of times I'm sure that someone could help you out remember to ask for a CC if you do not subscribe to the list.

I installed Etch with a RAID setup on SATA disks. GRUB indeed will not work on RAID, and LILO will only work on RAID-1.

Youssef Eldakar
Bibliotheca Alexandrina