Topic: RAID 1 error creating swap on md2

[Ray Mitchell]

Hi All
I am trying to set up a Pent II 233Mhz PC with sme v5.1.2, and set up software RAID 1 using 2x 40Gb IBM IDE HDD. The BIOS was updated to recognise the 40Gb drives. The 2 drives are brand new identical & same model number.

HDD 1 is Primary Master
HDD 2 is Secondary Master
CDROM is Secondary Slave

After selecting Dual drive instal using software RAID 1, I see the following quickly flash on the screen:
formatting swap space on dev/md2
then receive the error
Error creating swap on device md2

The instal will continue, but it appears just to be a single disk instal, no information in cat /proc/mdstat.

I also tried the same instal using e-smith v4.1.2 and received the same error message.

I saw a previous thread re problem with a Compaq instal and a similar error message. I have set the BIOS so that the HDD drive parameters are bog standard, nothing fancy just basic settings or disabled settings for performance enhancement.
I have physically swapped the drives and put them on different controller channels.

It doesn't matter what I do, I still get the same error message.
I can do a single disk instal using either disk, and it instals OK.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ray Mitchell

[Ille DuPre]

I had the same problem using the same configuration of hardware (only difference being I used a Pll 300) with SME v5. I tried looking thru the topics to find some solution...but never got it to work. So I finally gave up and did a single drive install. I will be very interested in any responses you get offering solutions.

This is the only thing that has kept me from upgrading to SME v 5.1.2.

[Charlie Brady]

Ray Mitchell wrote:

> Hi All

Hi Ray!

> I have set the BIOS so that the HDD
> drive parameters are bog standard, nothing fancy just basic
> settings or disabled settings for performance enhancement.
> I have physically swapped the drives and put them on
> different controller channels.
>
> It doesn't matter what I do, I still get the same error
> message.
> I can do a single disk instal using either disk, and it
> instals OK.

I don't know what your problem is, and the code which does this is unmodified RedHat code,  so it's difficult for us to diagnose and correct the problem. All I can suggest is to make sure that both drives are set to LBA mode, and for you to zero the partition table in both drives before attempting to install. You can do this by installing on a single drive, then doing:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdc bs=4k count=1
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=4k count=1

Then just reset and try the RAID1 install again. Let me know how you get on.

Regards

Charlie

[Ray Mitchell]

Thanks for your feedback everyone, seems like this is a bit of a mystery problem to more than just myself.
For what it's worth I did do another clean instal of sme 5.1.2 using a Celeron 600 with 128Mb RAM and a Pioneer CD/DCD drive and the same 2x 40Gb drives as a RAID1 sofwware configuration. It worked perfectly the first time. Mind you it took over 6 hours for the disk resyncing to complete, but it's up and running nicely now. Confirmed OK with the cat /proc/mdstat command. Thanks e-smith mitel and Charlie Brady and the gang.

Charlie, thanks for your feedback, I will have another look at the Pent 233 machine later, I would still like to get it up as a RAID1 machine, but it's possible there is some hardware motherboard ?? or BIOS issue/conflict ?? seeing that I could do the above instal using the same hard drives OK.

Regards
Ray Mitchell

[Joshua]

Just thought I'd throw in that I have the same exact problem with different hardware. I'm installing on a Compaq Proliant 2500 with two 18.2 gig hot plug scsi drives. I gave up and threw a raid card in it, but am curious to know the solution.

--Josh

[Ray Mitchell]

Dear All

Charlie, I did try your suggestions on the original Pent II 233 box, but without success, your suggestions worked fine but I still received the error message when doing a RAID 1 instal.

Further to this though, I was able to run some more "tests" on the original box as follows'
I have had some success setting up the original Pentium II 233 box with a RAID1  software sme 5.1.2 instal.
I changed the RAM from a 32 MB module to a 128 MB (PC133) module and the instal went perfectly.
I do not suspect that the 32 MB RAM is faulty as it has been in service since the PC was originally purchased approx 4 yrs ago without having any problems or errors that I can recall (ie running Win95), but anything is possible.

Just to make sure I removed the 128MB RAM and replaced it with the original 32MB and the RAID1 instal was again unsuccessful, same error message creating swap on md2. Put the 128MB back in and RAID1 instal runs OK.

I don't know why this is but to others who have experienced this similar problem, it might be worth a try to "change" the RAM.

Regards
Ray Mitchell