On Mon, Jul 24, 2006 at 12:34:58PM -0400, Miles Fidelman wrote: > Package: installation-reports > http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r2/i386/iso-cd/debian-31r2-i386-netinst.iso <snip/> > Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes > > Disk /dev/sdb: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes > > Disk /dev/sdc: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes > > Disk /dev/sdd: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes > > raid set up as follows: > md3 : active raid1 sdb5[0] sdc5[2] sdd5[1] > 195310080 blocks [2/2] [UU] > > md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[2] sdc1[1] > 979840 blocks [2/2] [UU] > > md2 : active raid1 sdb3[2] sda3[0] sdc3[1] > 97659008 blocks [2/2] [UU] > > md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[2] sdc2[1] > 2634560 blocks [2/2] [UU] > > /dev/md0 mounted as /boot (ext3) > /dev/md1 allocated for swap > /dev/md2 allocated as LVM pv /dev/rootvolume > /dev/md3 allocated as LVM pv /dev/backupvolume > > Output of lspci and lspci -n: > > server1:/etc# lspci <snip/> > server1:/etc# lspci -n <snip/> > Base System Installation Checklist: > [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it > > Initial boot worked: [O] > Configure network HW: [O] > Config network: [O] > Detect CD: [O] > Load installer modules: [O] > Detect hard drives: [E] > Partition hard drives: [E] > Create file systems: [O] > Mount partitions: [O] > Install base system: [E] > Install boot loader: [E] > Reboot: [E] > > Comments/Problems: > > Detect Hard Drives: > - default kernel (2.4) couldn't detect drives > - needed to run linux26/expert26 to detect SATA drives - then worked ok
Nice. > - could use a little better documentation Which documentation did you use? (Which documentation should be improved?) > Partition Hard Drives: > - this was VERY time consuming and error prone > - I was using the combination of md and lvm, which is very poorly > documented, and doesn't work completely (at least for sarge) Oh, now I see the 3.1 that was told before. That I explains the default of a 2.4 kernel. > - things I discovered along the way: > ---- after specifying a RAID set, things work badly unless you wait for > the disks to sync (alt-f2, watch and wait, for each raid set - wait a long > time) You where waiting for about 800 GIGA Byte to be transferred, that does take time. > ---- after creating raids and trying to write them, I got errors along > the lines of note: "unable to re-read the partition table, you should > reboot" - turns out that it's ok to ignore these, but you have to go > into and out of the partition editor a couple of times to move on to the > next step of configuring LVM > ---- create file systems worked after figuring out the md and lvm setups > - the documentation needs a lot of work for this. some suggestions: > > -- sections 6.3.2.2 and .3 should be reversed (setting up RAIDs needs to > happen before setting up logical volumes!) > -- need a lot more discussion about complex setups (lvm over raid, and > so forth) - I found > http://www.planamente.ch/emidio/pages/linux_howto_root_lvm_raid.php > to be the best resource - suggest either adding a link, or incorporating > text from it Acknowledge. > Install boot loader and reboot: > - neither lilo nor grub set up properly after the disk partioning > - got errors about not being able to install (tried a lot of different > locations) > - had to use the install disk as a rescue disk to boot and figure out > the proper paths to the kernel and initrd > - it seemed to get grub into the MBR on one hard drive, so I was able to > reboot - which got me into grub > - manually booted via grub > - manually installed grub into MBRs of other disks > - had to set up menu.lst manually > - then everything pretty much worked I read that the LVM & RAID stuff wanted more attention then expected. Reading the changelog of > A few more nits that I had to clean up manually: > > - the -386 kernel only recognized 1G of 3G: I had to install a -686 > version of the kernel and reboot to see all my memory (might want to add > more kernel choices to the installer and/or put some notes in sec. 3.6.4 > of the installation manual regarding what to do if you don't see all > your memory - all that's mentioned now is to try using the mem= kernel > option, which doesn't help) The "netinst CD" has only one kernel, a i386 that (tries to) fits all. Other install methods present more kernels. There is -686 available. > - the installer did not quite get swapping or the fstab right, I had to > > mkswap/dev/md1 > > swapon > > and add the following to fstab: > /dev/md0 /boot ext3 defaults 0 0 > /dev/md1 none swap sw 0 0 I think it doesn't make sense to swap to a RAID device. > and there seems to be some kind of subtle bug or interactions in the > raid code: > > I have spare devices configured for each raid, but they didn't show up > on initial boot. As best as I can reconstruct from the boot logs: > > /dev/md0 - which mounts as boot, tried to bind it's spare device, and > then kicked it out as being out of date. I did a manual > mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/sdb1 > and it mounted cleanly, and then automounted on subsequent reboots. > > /dev/md2 - which mounts as / - would not mount it's spare device at all, > and there's no indication in the boot log that it even tries. I finally > gave up and put a crude work-around, by executing "mdadm /dev/md2 -a > /dev/sdb3" in a locally defined init file (executed via rcS.d). > > One last suggestion: it might be worth enabling bootlog to be on by > default - it would make debugging a lot easier, rather than first having > to figure out that it exists and then how to turn it on. Mmm, I can see the advantage of it. (But not the disadvantage) > Overall: not a complete snap, but given that mine is a somewhat > complicated setup, and I'm coming at this from a Solaris and Red Hat > background, I'd consider this a reasonably smooth setup. Thank you for the compliment. > Now I'm off to load and configure application software and migrate apps > from my old Red Hat box (and not completely happy that Debian uses Exim > instead of Sendmail by default, sigh...). apt-get install postfix Cheers Geert Stappers -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
