GRUB hard disk error on fresh ubuntu RAID install
 

Clean install of Gutsy Server, set up partitions manually for softwareRAID like so:
Drive 1: auto partitioned into 2 partitions, root and swap
drive 2: same as drive one
changed all 4 partitions to "use as physical volume for RAID"
disks 3 and 4: one partition, use for RAID.
set up RAID as RAID1, 3 different devices: 1 for root, 1 for swap(disks 1 and 2), 1 for home (on disks 3 and 4)
went back to partitioner, set raid device 1, which happened to be the home partition, to mount as /home
set raid device 2 to mount as /
set raid device 3 to mount as swap
wrote changes to disk, finished installation, and got the "GRUB hard disk error"

I know from googling that this means grub can't map the disk geometry, which isn't very suprising.
Booted into knoppix and both RAID devices are there, and root has all the stuff in it it's supposed to have.

Did i do something wrong? possibly RAIDing the swap is wrong? What do i do next?

Thanks!

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO-7.html

if that fails....re-partition so /boot is first partition non-raided

looks great, thanks. I got ubuntu to load by unplugging the second hd in the array. Now, trying to edit the grub configuration, typing "device (hd0) /dev/sda" as well as sdb gives "Error 15: file not found"

any suggestions?

since you mention sda etc I assume you have sata drives?

do you have a /boot/grub/device.map file and if so can you post contents.

mine is
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/sda

Yes I use a floppy drive to flash my bios. Yes I have only one sata I do not like any raid.

in case our replies are delayed....pls check out my troubleshooter...it won't help with the device.map file but it will help you see if grub can find its /boot partition or subfolder.

Yes, they are all SATA.

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
(hd3) /dev/sdd
(hd4) /dev/sde

in case you need it /proc/mdstat:

md1 : active raid1 sdb1[0] sdc1[1](S)
x blocks [1/1] [U]


md3 : active raid1 sda5[0]
x blocks [1/1] [U]


md2 : active raid1 sda1[0]
x blocks [1/1] [U]

for md2 and md3 the other hard drive is disconnected. Now that i'm looking at that that doesn't look quite right?

anyway, i took a quick glance at your guides last night but wasn't certain what i was looking for. I'll give it another go.
Thanks for your help!

edit:

So i went ahead and reinstalled, this time leaving /boot and swap out of the raid. No luck, i get the same error.
As part of the process of cutting out variables i removed that last drive, so now device.map looks like:

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
(hd3) /dev/sdd

I've tried many different things trying to get this to work, maybe it's time to try a completely different approach. What i'm thinking is i could just get a small drive for the OS and back it up manually, then have the rest with all the data on them RAIDed. Are there any packages that just allow you to copy an entire hard drive to another drive?

yeah well this is dd but first some references that may help

software raid howto
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Software-RAID-HOWTO/

I do not use raid...but the installer needs to set up the raid devices correctly....

http://www.gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Gen..._Software_RAID

yeah well this is dd but first some references that may help

software raid howto
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Software-RAID-HOWTO/

I do not use raid...but the installer needs to set up the raid devices correctly....

http://www.gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Gen..._Software_RAID