zenarcher

I wouldn't think the monitor should be a problem, either.. zenarcher

Well, for once, I don't need help with a Linux problem (except my SATA RAID setup)! I just received my new Mandriva 2005LE (6 CD Set) yesterday, so removed Mandrake 10.1 PowerPack and started with a fresh install. Well, the entire new install went perfectly. All hardware was recognized during the install. Even my HP multi function printer was installed during the process. I didn't have to go back and install it later. I'm amazed with the great bunch of applications included with 2005SE. Many I didn't have with the 10.1 system and many updated applications. Graphics seem more refined. My only real objection is at bootup, looking at the huge penguin with large stars in his eyes...looking like he's a serial killer, or some other sort of deranged bird. As many of you know, I'm pretty new to Linux and certainly not proficient and even I managed this install without any problems. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to start out with Linux or those who like Mandrake! zenarcher

I'm using StarOffice 7.0, which I've used for awhile. I am 100% Linux, though. I did have to build a cheap Windows box for my wife..for some of her games, after switching her main computer to Mandriva, though. zenarcher

Absolutely wonderful, blackpage! I've sent it off to everyone I know! You do deserve some kind of prize for this one! zenarcher

There you go! Dan has proof it's just superstition! Hey, I have 3 pure black cats and they have crossed my path and my desk, several times today with no ill effects, either! zenarcher

Yes, it's been a lot of years for me and I still miss Castle! And, as you say, the REAL braai. Here we use propane. Not the same. I remember cutting the old steel drums in half to make a nice braai...even welding hinges so the other half would be a cover. And, I remember having a braai, using an old farming disc blade, well polished, of course! Living in Rhodesia called for creativity! zenarcher

I like the braai and the beers best of all! I spent several years in Rhodesia, Botswana and S. Africa...and miss all of that! Just not the same back here in the U.S. with the barbeque! And a good, cold Castle beer!! zenarcher

You might have a point there. If I'm going to crash anything, I probably should crash it before doing the new Mandriva install. I have no experience with Disk Druid. Barely have heard the name, so I'll have to go do some looking around. I am not trying to run Windows or anything on this system...just Mandrake, which should make things a bit easier. blackpage had me set the first drive as 1Gig for Swap, 9Gig for / and the remainder just blank...not as /usr/ On the second drive, same spaces but just blank, until it is set up. Both are 80Gig SATA drives. I'm running 1Gig of PC2700 RAM with an AMD XP3000+ processor and MSI KT6V motherboard. I've shut off the hardware RAID (VIA8237) as we were sure that was not a good idea. I tried it first and ended up at boot with a half screen of 9's. Had to reinstall. Right now, we've been trying to set up the SATA RAID using mdadm. zenarcher

RAID0 I've been getting help from blackpage, trying to get it set up and working with Mandrake 10.1 I'm not the most competent person with Linux and know even less about SATA RAID. So far, we're not doing too well. Managed to create the RAID drive and all, but when I did the mv per blackpage instructions, I lost everything....had to reinstall. I'm kind of resting right now, as my new Mandriva 2005 PowerPack disks should be here at the first of the week and I'll do the install...then, get back to it. Right now, blackpage is waiting for a new box to arrive and he's going to go through setting up the SATA RAID on it, hoping he can work out all the glitches and be able to walk me through it. We have a thread here, SATA RAID with Mandrake 10.1, if you care to look at it. Regards, zenarcher

Well, I'm not going to play with setting up SATA RAID on my Mandrake box today, that's for sure! zenarcher

Good Morning blackpage. Well, I'm considering it all a learning experience! Obviously, my wife thinks I'm crazy. As I say, I have a couple of computers to build this week and will be waiting for the new Mandriva 2005 PowerPack to arrive, so I can start fresh and install it. I will set up the partitions and all, per the instructions you sent me. I'll be ready to go, once you have your new box there and can experiment a bit and maybe figure out the problem. I do think everything went fine, up to the mv point. As I say, I could see the RAID drive in the partitions and drives section and the RAID drive with the correct size and all. I did not get any errors when making the mv for /usr, that seemed to go fine, of course, no way to know for me, whether Mandrake was able to find /usr after that. I suspect not, as the errors occurred when I tried to perform the mv command for /bin, /home and anything else, since /usr was the first I did. At that point, all was lost....Mandrake couldn't find root or anything. Keep me posted and I'll watch for you to let me know when you get your new box up and running..and hopefully, a Mandrake solution to this RAID setup. Have a great day! zenarcher

The Linux Box...she died! I know blackpage was waiting to hear how the SATA RAID went. I made some notes, so I hope that will help figuring out a solution. Everything was going fine....in fact, I did create the RAID array and even had a difficult time getting rid of it when I went to remove all partitions to begin a new install. Everything went fine until Step 5.1 At that point, I did have to use the command mkfs.ext /dev/md0 and also mkfs.ext /dev/sdb5 After doing so, I was able to run the mount command just fine. No errors. So, again, I thought I was well on my way. I then tested the RAID device and all was well. I even did the reboot and all was fine. No problem....Mandrake came right up as it should. Now, for the real problem area! I ran the # cp -R /usr /save then the # mv /usr /raid which went fine...and finally the #ln -s /raid/usr /usr There were no errors during this process. I then attempted to run the same command for /bin....munning the above commands but replacing /usr with /bin When I did, I got the error "No such file or directory found when I tried to run the mv command. I then tried to run the same commands on the /home with the same error statement. I then closed the terminal and tried to re-open the terminal, which I could not do. Just got a white screen and no prompt. I rebooted the computer...and when Mandrake attempted to start, I got a Logon command. I attempted to logon, but would not accept the logon. I am thinking this probably has something to do with the script I did add the script I was told to add in /etc/fstab but blackpage had a feeling a script might be needed in /etc/rd.d or /etc/init.d and I am thinking that might be the problem. As I say, the RAID array was created just fine. No problem was apparent there. Anyway, I had to remove all partitions and reinstall Mandrake Powerpack 10.1 I am now back running as normal. I won't worry about it, as I just ordered Mandriva 2005 PowerPack, the 6 disk set, which should be here the end of this week. I will clear all of this install out and install the new Mandriva 2005, which will give blackpage a bit of time to maybe think of a solution. Also, I have a couple of Windows computers to build for customers, so I'll stay out of trouble with Linux! Anyway, blackpage, I wanted to bring you up to date. I'm getting real fast at installing Mandrake Linux...and even pretty good at going through your instructions for creating the RAID array! Now, if we can just resolve the issue of what happened right here at the end, I think it may work. I do think we're getting close! Maybe I'm just an optimist! Regards, zenarcher

Thanks so much, blackpage. I have had a busy day here, today. Two computers showed up, both with Microsoft and a ton of Trojans. One had finally quit even starting up. Been working on them and have the wife off work today, as well. I'm going to take a shot at creating the RAID array tomorrow and really hope I can get through it, as right now, this install is the best I've ever had! Everything is working perfectly! I'll keep you posted. Regards, zenarcher

Good Morning and thanks again, blackpage! I thought this was the case, but with my limited knowledge of Linux, I have learned to assume nothing. One more question, since I'm not assuming anything, before I continue here. In your section 4, Creating a RAID volume, you say, "Boot into your Mandrake system and create some software-RAID volumes, using the mdadm utility. In fact, you only have to create one volume." My question is this were I do the # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level+0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sdb5 or is there something I need to do first? I have to say, it was a good thing to do 4 complete clean installs yesterday. This is the best install I've ever had! Everything seems to be working perfectly! While I've been waiting for your reply, I have gone ahead and done all Mandrake updates, installed mdadm and tweaked a lot of my configurations. It's the best Mandrake install I've had yet. I'm getting experience at that, as well! I would recommend, for anyone attempting this SATA RAID proecdure, that you do not run out of beer, nor should this be attempted on coffee or tea, alone! This is a beer project and running out at a crucial time could be devastating! Will watch for your reply, blackpage...and again, thank you so much for the help! Regards, zenarcher

I seem to have messed something up here...and just did another fresh install. I removed all partitions, etc. and once again configured the partitions on each of the two drives. Still stuck at the same place I was in the previous post. Here is something I just discovered, which may explain some of the previous post situation. The device names are not the same as what was explained, when I was supposed to set them up. Here is what they are: Disk 1 1 GB primary /dev/sda1 Swap swap 9 GB primary /dev/sda5 Ext3 / 67 GB primary /dev/sda6 Ext3 none Disk 2 1 GB primary /dev/sdb1 Swap none 9 GB primary /dev/sdb5 Ext3 none 67 GB primary /dev/sdb6 Ext3 none Maybe that info will help some... I could not figure how to change them to sda0, sda1, sda2. Thanks, zenarcher

Sometimes, I think I'm too dumb to have a computer! Anyway, I have been following the instructions from blackpage. However, I have run into a bit of a problem here. Here is what I've done so far: 1) I have removed all the hardware RAID, which worked just fine. 2) I have removed all partitions of existing Mandrake install and started anew. 3) I partitioned Disk 1 and Disk 2, exactly to the size and descriptions shown in the 2.1 Partition layout. All went just fine. 4) I have installed Mandrake 10.1 PowerPack on the 9 GB partition of Disk 1 (sda1) 5) The bootloader installed to /dev/sda which I believe is correct, rather than to sda1 or one of the partitions. 6) I have removed install disks and rebooted the system, which came right up, however, I have no RAID installed as of yet, so am now ready to go for the RAID install. 7) Incidentally, mdadm did install a configuration file called mdadm.conf in /etc/mdadm, so I believe that is correct. Now, here is my problem. I am a bit confused in Step 4. "Boot into your Mandrake system and create some software-RAIF volumes, using the mdadm utility. In fact, you only have to create one volume. Following that instruction, there is some information, but not sure what I'm supposed to do here. Following that, is the command ti issue to create the RAID device shown as: # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sdb2 If I run that command right now, I get the following error: You haven't given enough devices(real or missing)to create this array. Looking at the mdadam website, I think I have to specify sda and sdb, but I'm not sure. So, if anyone can help, I need to know if I should be trying this command, or if I should be creating some software-RAID volumes first and if so, how?? Thanks, zenarcher

Good Morning blackpage. Thanks so much for this detailed information! It is sincerely appreciated! While awaiting your reply, I've been reading on the mdadm utility,so I think I am getting a little bit familiar with it and it does appear to be somewhat understandable, even to me. Your explanation and instructions here are the best I've ever found, anywhere I've looked! If this works, you're going to have to put out a book on Mandrake RAID! I see that several people have the same question on the Mandrake forums and others and are met with "I don't know." I know what I'm going to be trying here today. I'll get my wife off to work, then begin trying your instructions. I'm pretty patient, as far as doing re-installs, so if it fails, I don't mind trying a few times. I'd be thrilled to get it working. I have been printing everything out, as I know if I get this working, my wife will want the same on her system, even though she doesn't know what it is. Also, later this year, I plan to rebuild her system and mine (she always has to have the same identical system as mine, or she is suspicious that she has a second rate computer. In that rebuild, I'm planning to go to a new motherboard and 64 bit AMD processor. I believe the new MSI motherboard I'm looking at will support either 4 or 6 SATA drives. I'll probably move up to a full sized server case, so I have more working room, as I also want to eventually install liquid cooling. It's just my hobby. Yes, the wife's computer is not a place to be. My wife is a cosmetologist and doesn't want explanations about how it works. If there is a problem, I just find a yellow sticky note on my monitor with detailed instructions, such as "Fix it." I switched her over to Linux before and she freaked! She couldn't possibly use Firefox....it HAD to be Internet Explorer! So, back to Windows XP. Then, switched her to Firefox...until she got comfortable with that. Then, over to Star Office....instead of MS Office 2003..she liked it. THEN, over to Linux, using Star Office and Firefox! That worked! NOW she understands Linux! She misses a couple of little MS games, so I'm patching an old computer together, with Windows XP and the couple of games, as she's pretty happy with the Linux games. That's her world of computers...games and websurfing. I don't even think I'll put that one on the network...I get tired of removing spyware and such. Anyway, have a great day there and I will have a busy day ahead here. Thanks so much for all this info and the time you've spent helping me. I'll be back later today with the result of how this went. If I have problems, I can always go back to this configuration, until we can sort it out, or I have an old 4 Gig IDE hard drive with my basic Mandrake setup already installed. I can just hook it up and leave it lying on the desk! Regards, zenarcher Email: zenarcher@cableone.net

Doing some further reading and researching, I find that Mandrake 10.1 has a RAID tool called mdadm included in the package. This looks to be a way to work with RAID arrays, from creation to monitoring them. It seems to me, however, that this tool could not be used until after Mandrake was installed on the system and would have to successfully reboot after install. Maybe someone can clarify a bit on the value of mdadm for me, as well. I'm still trying to find out if I need to do anything specific, in the way of configuring partitions, while doing the Mandrake install, using the Software RAID. Thanks, zenarcher

blackpage, you should write Linux books for dummies. Your explanation and ASCII art are fantastic! I've worked with M$ since DOS 5.0, with 286 processors and "huge" 40 MEG hard drives....but Linux has often left me feeling like an idiot. I live in a small town and if you want a computer fixed so it actually works, it ends up at my house. In the old, old days, I actually was involved in the mechanical design effor of the old 5.25 inch floppy drive. So, I'm not new to computers, but lost, lost, lost with Linux and RAID. Your explanation is actually clear and I understand what you are saying. I'm really glad you could confirm what was said on the Mandrake forum, as well. Now, I understand much more. I can merely go into the BIOS utility and delete the RAID array I have now. Actually, I have a small IDE drive with Mandrake installed, so if I really mess up, I can hook it up and ask for help...or risk using my wife's computer. I was feeling confident about all this, until I went to the website you suggested. Then, I felt dumb again. Looking at RAID0 there, it talks about setting up the "/etc/raidtab" file, then running "mkraid /dev/mdo" to initialize. These instructions, along with their talking about downloading RAID utilities, loses me again, I guess. Is this all something I have to do, or will Mandrake take care of this? I see they are primarily talking about the kernel 2.4, which of course is not current with Mandrake 10.1. I don't understand if they are talking about editing files, creating files, or what..let alone downloading something. If you could translate their information, as well as you explained software/hardware RAID, I think I could manage! Have a good day off! zenarcher

Here is something I was just told on the Mandrake forum. I'm not sure about this...and I hate to wipe out everything again and find out it was not good info. Does anyone have an idea about this?? Start over, and don't use the onboard RAID. Use Linux software RAID. Cheap onboard RAID like that is not actually run on a dedicated hardware controller, it just steals CPU cycles like software RAID would, so it has no real performance benefits and tends to introduce compatibility headaches. Wipe the RAID configuration out, re-install MDK, and use the RAID configuration available in the installer to set up Linux software RAID. Good luck. I am guessing that I would have to delete the RAID1 array I set up in the RAID BIOS utility, then at reboot, ignore the attempt to have me set up a RAID array there...Start a Mandrake install...and I guess Mandrake will give me some options for setting up a RAID array.....I wonder if I would let Mandrake set the partitions and such the way it wants, or if I would have to manually select? Any ideas appreciated! zenarcher

Hi again, Well, at least you were able to figure out what I have going from the lsmod. That's a step forward....remembering that it is in RAID1 array right now, as that's the only way I could install Mandrake and make it work. I know there is/was a lot of VIA bashing, as with the Western Digital WD800JD SATA hard drives...and only that model, VIA8237 was not able to recognize the drives. In fact, WD has been replacing the drives with the 120Gig model, at no charge, since it's their problem and they can't fix it. But, mine were recognized with no problem. I can look at the serial numbers of the drives, create the array and everything, just fine. Also, from what I've read, Mandrake 10.1 is supposed to work fine with the VIA8237 for RAID. I did not choose which drive/partition to boot from, but let Mandrake do that. As best as I can recall, it said it would boot from sda. That's the best I can remember...but I think that may be where part of the problem lies. Don't think it could find the boot partition. Now, that I'm using a RAID1 array, I don't know why the second drive appears, but shows empty. I guess that means it isn't serving as a mirror, as I think it should in RAID1 configuration, if my understanding is correct. I know a lot of people don't like RAID0, due to the risk of losing data in a crash. I always back up my important files in Home, so I'm not concerned about that. RAID1, to me would be find if you had real critical data files, which I do not. I'd like to be able to use the RAID0 to learn more about the speed of this configuration and increase my hard drive size, which RAID0 would be seeing both drives as a single size (i.e. the 148.5Gig that appears when installing Mandrake). I'll watch for what you learn about this, as you understand way more than I do about this RAID. The help is appreciated! And, maybe you can run for political office here, with that "I'll be back" line. It seems to have worked once!

blackpage, I sincerely appreciate the help and understand that after 16 hours, no one is that alert. Many years ago, I worked in the news business and know what those hours can do to a person. Now, being in the "retirement" age group, I don't always catch the little things, even after a lot of sleep! Here is the listing I got in the terminal...maybe if we take it one step at a time, I won't mess anything up. Anyway, I will let you take a look at this...and maybe you can tell where to go from here. Looks like the VIA is there to me... [root@localhost zenarcher]# lsmod Module Size Used by nls_iso8859-1 3680 0 isofs 31352 0 vfat 11168 0 fat 39776 1 vfat md5 3584 1 ipv6 230916 10 rfcomm 32348 0 l2cap 19876 5 rfcomm bluetooth 39076 4 rfcomm,l2cap snd-seq-oss 31232 0 snd-seq-midi-event 6080 1 snd-seq-oss snd-seq 47440 4 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq-midi-event snd-pcm-oss 49480 0 snd-mixer-oss 17376 1 snd-pcm-oss snd-via82xx 22372 1 snd-ac97-codec 69392 1 snd-via82xx snd-pcm 81800 2 snd-pcm-oss,snd-via82xx snd-timer 20356 2 snd-seq,snd-pcm snd-page-alloc 7400 2 snd-via82xx,snd-pcm gameport 3328 1 snd-via82xx snd-mpu401-uart 5856 1 snd-via82xx snd-rawmidi 19300 1 snd-mpu401-uart snd-seq-device 6344 3 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-rawmidi snd 45988 13 snd-seq-oss,snd-seq,snd-pcm-oss,snd-mixer-oss,snd-via82xx,snd-ac97-codec,snd-pcm,snd-timer,snd-mpu401-uart,snd-rawmidi,snd-seq-device soundcore 7008 1 snd parport_pc 30976 1 lp 9548 2 parport 33896 2 parport_pc,lp af_packet 16072 2 floppy 55088 0 via-rhine 17572 0 mii 4224 1 via-rhine ide-cd 37280 0 cdrom 37724 1 ide-cd usb-storage 65504 0 loop 12520 0 supermount 34804 1 via-agp 7360 1 agpgart 27752 2 via-agp nvidia 4805012 12 ehci-hcd 26244 0 uhci-hcd 28752 0 usbcore 103172 5 usb-storage,ehci-hcd,uhci-hcd ext3 120680 2 jbd 49080 1 ext3 sd_mod 19008 4 sata_via 4644 3 libata 38020 1 sata_via scsi_mod 103404 3 usb-storage,sd_mod,libata Looks like 1 sata_via....but then, I have everything set up as RAID1 in BIOS right now...if that would make a difference, since I can't start Mandrake, if I have it set up as a RAID0 array...that is when I get all the 0's on the screen, when Mandrake is supposed to boot up. If necessary, I do have a small IDE drive I could install to start things...but it's only a little 4Gig test drive I keep around, so can't install everything I use on it. Will watch for your next comment. zenarcher P.S. On an additional note, here are a few other things I'm questioning. As I said, when I set up the RAID0 array in the RAID utility in BIOS, everything looked fine. When I began installing Mandrake, everything also looked fine...and if I recall correctly, I think I saw somewhere in that installation process that Mandrake was saying that I had something like 149.5 G of hard drive space...which seems right for the pair of SATA 80Gig hard drives. Further, Mandrake went through installing all six CD's and there appeared to be no errors in the install. After the install was complete, I removed the final CD, per the Mandrake box which came up on the screen and rebooted, per the button in that box. When the computer rebooted...I saw the BIOS info come up, indicating the two RAID drives in RAID0 array...then, as Mandrake was supposed to start...that is when I got the screen half full of the number 9. I'm wondering if that meant that Mandrake could not find the boot partition, or something like that? Especially, since it seemed to install all okay. When Mandrake was setting up, I let Mandrake automatically determine the partitions and such. Not knowing if this had to be done a particular way with the RAID0 config, I was afraid to try to be "custom." I just wanted to provide this info, in case I wasn't clear in my earlier posts.

Thanks for the info, blackpage. I'm still kind of lost, but I printed out the info you posted here. I'll try to give you a bit more information, as well. When I go to look at the Mount Points - Partitions, here is what I see: sda 74GB Mount Point: Home Device sda6 Type: Journalised FS: ext3 Size: 67GB (90%) Formatted Mounted When I look at the second tab, I see: sdb Empty Size: 74GB Cylinder 0 to 9728 When I went into the Bios Utility to set up the RAID, I had a choice between RAID0 and RAID1. There may be other options, but I was not aware of them. When I chose RAID0, or RAID1, the array was created automatically. In this RAID1 I am now using, the second drive was shown as a mirror. In the RAID0, which I want, both were striping. I know, but have never tried changing...that when installing Mandrake 10.1, the partitioning I believe, can be done custom or automatic. I have always just chosen automatic and let Mandrake create partitions, etc., as it chose to do. I do remember in the Mandrake install, there was some question asked where you could determine what partition to boot from....If I understood what I saw correctly. But, I'm not real sure. If I understand your suggestions, I think the thing to do is to go back to the BIOS RAID utility....delete the RAID1 array and create a RAID0 array. Then, start the install of Mandrake 10.1. Then, I'm sort of lost on your instructions about using a plain poot partition with a standard file system on it. Not sure how I go about that. Also, not sure about the partitioning to mention...Partition 1,2 and 3...with the rest in RAID0..set later...and all the partitions as "primary." Must I then go back into the Bios RAID utility and combine both partitions #3? I'm lost there. I'm really sorry for my lack of understanding on this...so any further assistance would be appreciated. Regards, zenarcher

If you have not done so yet, I would clear the CMOS by moving the jumper on the board, as described in the manual and make sure you have the CMOS jumper in the correct position. I would also remove the motherboard from the case...make sure you have it on a proper surface, such as the anti-static bag it was shipped in..with absolute minimal hardware installed and try to power it up. Just to be sure nothing is shorting out on your mounting setup. zenarcher

At least in my case, yes, everything was recognized just fine. I was/am running a Linksys router with 2 computers(identical motherboards) and my VoIP telephone off the router. Everything is connected ethernet....not using USB at all. Everything would be find when I first booted up...everything connected...then, in a few seconds or so...the connection would die...and the system would completely freeze up. Nothing seemed to fix it. And, that was SUSE Professional V9.1, so I don't know about 9.2 or 9.3. Switching to Mandrake PowerPack 10.1 just completely resolved the issue, making no changes. Worked right out of the box.