# EVMS, IDE RAID and the root partition

## Puggles

Greetings,

When I was trying to install Gentoo, I attempted to use EVMS to set up a RAID 1 array across two 80 gig IDE drives. I got everything set up, and bootstrapped the system, compiled the kernel, and everything was happy. Then I rebooted, and the kernel panic'd right after EVMS set up the first md device.

I should explain - I simply made two md devices:

/ -- ReiserFS (md1)

/boot/ -- ext3 (md0)

So it appeared that md0 was initialized appropriately, but then I'd get a "Kernel: Attempted to kill init!" message and the kernel would panic, amid fanfare of blinking keyboard lights and much hair pulling. So after finding that there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop the kernel from panicing on boot, I tried to boot from the LiveCD again (1.4 series). Unfortunately, the liveCD would not boot, either. It panic'd in the exact same location. What I ended up doing was removing one of the hard drives, low level formatting it, replacing the other with the newly blank drive, and leaving only one connected. This time I didn't use EVMS or RAID....

So now I have a perfectly operable Gentoo system, but I *do* want to use a RAID 1 array. I read someplace that night when I was bashing my head against the kernel panic that EVMS could not operate on the root partition of the drive. Is that true? I know the normal linux MD drivers can ...

So my question then is, now that I want to construct this IDE RAID array, should I even try to do it with EVMS? Has anyone else gotten it to work with their root partition? Even better-  has anyone else run into that kernel panic and find a resolution?

I'm wondering if I should just get an IDE RAID controller... 

----------

## rommel

well i dont have /boot on a raid array but do have arrays for swap /root and a storage volume all using evms...i have found it to be a pretty useful.

what did you use to set it up? was this from a prior install of from an iso? here is my fstab for the hell of it...also if you have ReiserFS in that fstab change it to reiserfs.

```
# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.

/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy     vfat,ext2       noauto,rw,user            0 0

/dev/sdb1               /boot           ext3            noauto,noatime            1 2

/dev/evms/md/md0        /               reiserfs        noatime,notail            0 1

/dev/evms/md/md3        /mnt/storage    xfs             noatime,users,rw          0 1

/dev/evms/md/md1        none            swap            sw                        0 0

/dev/evms/md/md2        none            swap            sw                        0 0

/dev/sdg1               /mnt/flash      vfat            noauto,user,ro            0 0

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         noauto,user,ro            0 0

/dev/sr0                /mnt/cdrw       iso9660         noauto,exec,async,rw,user 0 0

/dev/sda1               /mnt/winxp      vfat            noauto,user,rw            0 0

/dev/sda5               /mnt/xpstorage  vfat            noauto,user,rw            0 0

proc                    /proc           proc            defaults                  0 0

```

----------

## Puggles

I used the n-curses evms config tool, and read most of the docs (though admittedly not all of them!). All of the setup was done from the 1.4 rc1 LiveCD.

As far as I could tell everything was set up okay.

Perhaps the problem was with making the /boot/ partition part of an array? I just made a guess that since the panic happened right after it init'd md0 -- and I wish I still had the exact messages, but I never bothered to copy them all down, and that was over a month ago.

----------

## GurliGebis

rommel> Have you created an RAID array on the evms volumes?

If you have, can you expand it with another disk, and get more space on the array?

----------

## rommel

well mine are all raid0 GurliGebis so that wouldnt be possible.

----------

## GurliGebis

Can't EVMS volumes be expanded?

If they can, would it be possible to create a RAID5 array on that one, and thereby being able to expand an RAID5 array?

----------

## Puggles

I did get my RAID-1 array up and running - but my boot partition(s) are just standard ext2 without being in a RAID region... maybe that's why it worked this time.

----------

## tomkamphuys

btw, you don't need EVMS to install (soft)RAID, so you could consider that before buying a IDE RAID card.....

----------

