Slackware 11 Install onto RAID?

Slim Backwater · 10-15-2006, 12:53 PM

I want to install Slackware 11 onto two fresh hard drives, with root on a Software RAID1.

I've booted the default (bare.i 2.4.33.3) kernel and partitioned the disks. I've set the partition types to FD (Linux RAID Autodetect), but what I don't know is how to create the raid devices.

I mean I *know* how to create the raid device:

Code:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=raid1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/hda1 /dev/hdb1

But I don't know how to do this during the Slackware 11 installation, after booting off Disc 1.

First I noticed that mdadm was missing so I mounted disc1 and installed mdadm-2.5.3-i486-1. Now I have mdadm but it seems that all it does is say 'Bus error'.

Short of booting a liveCD, is there any way I can get the Slackware Installation CD to create the MD devices (essentially write the MD metadata to the disk)?

Thanks for any tips.

._.
*Edit: I think I got it. Short Story: I had run out of installation space. I found this which was for LVM, but gave steps to create a RAM disk and move important directories there *BEFORE* installing any packages. Once I did that, and reinstalled the mdadm package I've been able to create my raid devices.

The steps for the ramdisk are:

Code:

mkdir /ram
mount -t tmpfs none /ram
mv /sbin /ram
mv /bin /ram
/ram/bin/mv /lib/modules /ram
/ram/bin/ln -s /ram/sbin /
/ram/bin/ln -s /ram/bin /
/ram/bin/ln -s /ram/modules /lib

Maybe this will help someone else trying to do the same or similar things.
*Edit #2: I stated above that the default was bare.i; it's not. That's what I get for not paying attention. The Slackware 11 default is sata.i

hrp2171 · 11-06-2006, 08:59 AM

Hi,

Thanks for starting this thread. I searched on Google-Linux and it came up as one the results.

I'm looking into installing Slackware 11 on an IDE RAID 0 system. I have an add-on PCI IDE controller card with 2 separate channels on it. I'll connect each drive to its own channel then try and get RAID0 going for installation. Both drives are ATA133 and so is the controller card.

During the Google-Linux search, this other document came up:

Slack 8.2 RAID install

I understand exactly what's going on with that howto but I'm wondering what steps did you follow, if they were different from that document.

Should I read the Software-RAID HOWTO at tldp.org? Even though it might need some updating.

Thanks again. Looking forward to tinker with RAID.

hrp2171 · 11-07-2006, 12:17 PM

Nevermind this. I just went ahead and installed 11.0 to regular partitions. RAID is too much trouble for use on a desktop installation. Hardware RAID would be a much better option whenever a server install is needed.