[techtalk] Problems booting from RAID

[Magni Onsoien]

Jane Dawson:
> I am tearing my hair out over this stuff (I should have mentioned that I am
> completely new to not only RAID but Linux in general).  This is the first
> task I have been given in my new job - talk about being thrown in at the
> deep end! :)

:)
(It's also good to tell as much as possible about the system - distro,
kernel version etc)

> I've written to many lists for help with this and received various
> conflicting advice and suggestions (many thanks to those who have written
> back so far!) So, I've decided the best plan of action is to start again
> from scratch with blank hard disks, a new reinstallation and to copy the
> setup as described in Boot + Root + Raid + Lilo HOWTO - however I don't
> understand how to create a /boot partition as well as a root partition.

Rumors say that with RedHat 6.2 you can choose to install on RAID-1 from
scratch - i.e. the installation will fix it all for you. I think this
require the graphical installation (with mouse and stuff, not the
good'ol blue-red one). Due to lack of mouse, I didn't get the choice
when I installed last time..

So I would try that if RedHat is a suitable distro for you. WIth an
official RedHat CD I also think you have "bought" some 90 days of
support from them - use it :)

About the /boot-partition: this is useful if you have a huge disk with
more than 1024 cylinders, in order to have the kernel early enough on
the disk to be able to boot. I have never used it myself, so I don't
rellay know how useful it is.. (I have ran RedHat for 4 years without
any problems, so you can skip the /boot if you want. However, make sure
you always make a suitable bootdisk when you install, esp. on dual boot
computers (where Windows really f*** things up).


Magni :)
-- 
ulimit is good for you.