Re: partition based raid1 and multi boot Ubuntu/Xubuntu

[NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>]

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On Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:23:00 +0000 Gavin Whitehead
<gavin@alabastercranium.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> I'm not sure if this is a GRUB2 problem or a RAID/MD issue but here goes...
> 
> I want to set up a machine that will boot two Linux installations using 
> raid 1 partitions and Windows XP on a single partition.
> 
> I have two identical disks partitioned as follows
> 
> $ cat /proc/partitions
> major minor  #blocks  name
> 
>     8        0  244198584 sda
>     8        1   30720000 sda1
>     8        2   30720000 sda2
>     8        3   40960000 sda3
>     8        4          1 sda4
>     8        5    4194304 sda5
>     8        6  137601024 sda6
>     8       16  244198584 sdb
>     8       17   30720000 sdb1
>     8       18   30720000 sdb2
>     8       19   40960000 sdb3
>     8       20          1 sdb4
>     8       21    4194304 sdb5
>     8       22  137601024 sdb6
> 
> I installed WinXP first in sda3.
> 
> I then installed Ubuntu 11.04 from the Alternate CD and created some 
> raid1 devices
>      md0        sda1 sdb1    /
>      md1        sda5 sdb5    swap
>      md2        sda6 sdb6    /home
> 
> I set the boot flag on sda1 and sdb1.
> This worked a treat.  I could boot in to either Ubuntu 11.04 to WinXP.  
> I tested the RAID1 (power down, unplug a disk, power up, power down, 
> replug the disk, power up,  use 'mdadm --add' to rebuild the array).  
> Brilliant.
> 
> Then I installed Xubuntu 11.10 from the Alternate CD.  For this install 
> I created one new raid1 device (md3) and reused md1 and md2
>      md3        sda2 sdb2    /
>      md1        sda5 sdb5    swap
>      md2        sda6 sdb6    /home
> 
> I set the boot flag on sda2 and sdb2.
> 
> After the install had completed and grub2 had built the grub.cfg I only 
> had my new Xubuntu 11.10 in the boot menu.  The Xubuntu 11.10 install 
> works perfectly (and I can boot in to Win XP) but I can't boot in to the 
> Ubuntu 11.04 installation.  I've re-run 'update-grub' but it doesn't 
> find the other installation.
> 
> If I run 'sudo mount /dev/md0 /mnt' I can access the Ubuntu 11.04 files.
> 
> Is my intended configuration (tri-boot with two raid1, partition based, 
> Linux installations and XP on a single parition) unachievable?
> 

I would just dive into grub.cfg with an editor and make it work.

These wonderful "automatically make a config file for you tools" certainly
have a place, but there is a reason that config files are plain text files
and that reason is emacs (or possible vim).

NeilBrown

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