Re: Software RAID and Fakeraid

[Phillip Susi <psusi@cfl.rr.com>]

On 02/01/2011 11:26 AM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> If the raid stores the raid info at the end, then the data starts at
> sector 0.  So no space for a bootloader at all.

I know that is how it works with 0.9, but are you sure it is for 1.0? 
If so, then for anything but raid-1 we will just have to try to install 
only to the first device if it has an MBR.

> Certainly makes sense.  Now is 4K enough for a boot loader?  Not sure.

It is enough for the MBR.  The core image will need to go elsewhere, 
hence the proposal to ask mdadm for a suitable location.

> I personally consider soft raid on raw devices so convluted that I
> have never done it.  I would rather have something I know works with my
> bootloader and other tools, than gain that extra 1MB (at most) that not
> having partitions gives.  Also given many PCs won't boot from a drive
> without a partition table, it isn't even an option then.

That is why I like the idea of 1.2 since you could still have a bootable 
MBR when using the whole disk.  Though now that you mention it, I can't 
think of a good reason to use the whole disk instead of a partition either.