Problem with Dualboot on a LSI 9271-8i Controller

Problem with Dualboot on a LSI 9271-8i Controller

[Günther J. Niederwimmer]

Hello,

I have a big Problem to boot Linux on this Controller.

The System is a Asus W9D WS with a LSI Raid Controller.

My Installation is:

2 x Raid1 SSD's with 256GB

On the first Raid1 is windows installed (UEFI) and on the second Raid1 is Linux 
(oSUSE) installed (UEFI)

When I install the system and make the 1. REBOOT all is correct oSUSE is 
booting again, all works correct.

But after a shutdown only windows is booting again, oSUSE tell me 

Initrd is loading but it is hang.

Sometime 1-3 Days oSUSE is booting?

I have no Idea why?

This is always on different Systems with the same LSI Controller.

Have I configure the Raid Controller wrong, or is this Controller broken, or 
have Grun2-efi Problem with this Controller ....

Have any a Idea .....

-- 
mit freundlichen Grüßen / best Regards,

 Günther J. Niederwimmer
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Re: Problem with Dualboot on a LSI 9271-8i Controller

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 10/7/2013 6:58 AM, Günther J. Niederwimmer wrote:

> The System is a Asus W9D WS with a LSI Raid Controller.
...
> 2 x Raid1 SSD's with 256GB
> 
> On the first Raid1 is windows installed (UEFI) and on the second Raid1 is Linux 
> (oSUSE) installed (UEFI)
> 
> When I install the system and make the 1. REBOOT all is correct oSUSE is 
> booting again, all works correct.
> 
> But after a shutdown only windows is booting again, oSUSE tell me 
> 
> Initrd is loading but it is hang.
> 
> Sometime 1-3 Days oSUSE is booting?
...
> This is always on different Systems with the same LSI Controller.

Does this mean you have multiple computers all identical, all with this
controller, all dual booting Windows and Linux?  This is a strange
setup.  Why do you do this?

> Have I configure the Raid Controller wrong, or is this Controller broken, or 
> have Grun2-efi Problem with this Controller ....

Would you find it surprising that LSI never considered this $600
Enterprise 8 port RAID controller would be used in a dual boot
workstation role, with 4 SSDs in two RAID1 sets?

My guess is that this is a Grub2 issue and it's having trouble seeing
both disk devices as enumerated by the UEFI implementation.

What happens when you create a 4 SSD RAID10 and partition the resulting
single disk device into two equal halves, one partition for SuSE and one
for Windows?  With everything on one disk device this should work much
more reliably.

-- 
Stan

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Re: Problem with Dualboot on a LSI 9271-8i Controller

[Günther J. Niederwimmer]

Am Montag, 7. Oktober 2013, 18:25:56 schrieb Stan Hoeppner:
> On 10/7/2013 6:58 AM, Günther J. Niederwimmer wrote:
> > The System is a Asus W9D WS with a LSI Raid Controller.
> 
> ...
> 
> > 2 x Raid1 SSD's with 256GB
> > 
> > On the first Raid1 is windows installed (UEFI) and on the second Raid1 is
> > Linux (oSUSE) installed (UEFI)
> > 
> > When I install the system and make the 1. REBOOT all is correct oSUSE is
> > booting again, all works correct.
> > 
> > But after a shutdown only windows is booting again, oSUSE tell me
> > 
> > Initrd is loading but it is hang.
> > 
> > Sometime 1-3 Days oSUSE is booting?
> 
> ...
> 
> > This is always on different Systems with the same LSI Controller.
> 
> Does this mean you have multiple computers all identical, all with this
> controller, all dual booting Windows and Linux?  This is a strange
> setup.  Why do you do this?

NO ;)

This is the system from a friend an I change only the Motherboard for Tests


> > Have I configure the Raid Controller wrong, or is this Controller broken,
> > or have Grun2-efi Problem with this Controller ....
> 
> Would you find it surprising that LSI never considered this $600
> Enterprise 8 port RAID controller would be used in a dual boot
> workstation role, with 4 SSDs in two RAID1 sets?
> 
> My guess is that this is a Grub2 issue and it's having trouble seeing
> both disk devices as enumerated by the UEFI implementation.
> 
> What happens when you create a 4 SSD RAID10 and partition the resulting
> single disk device into two equal halves, one partition for SuSE and one
> for Windows?  With everything on one disk device this should work much
> more reliably.

But why it is booting same times (?) and only stop booting on a shutdown ?

-- 
mit freundlichen Grüßen / best Regards,

 Günther J. Niederwimmer
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Re: Problem with Dualboot on a LSI 9271-8i Controller

[Martin Wilck]

On 10/08/2013 08:39 AM, Günther J. Niederwimmer wrote:
> Am Montag, 7. Oktober 2013, 18:25:56 schrieb Stan Hoeppner:
>> On 10/7/2013 6:58 AM, Günther J. Niederwimmer wrote:
>>> The System is a Asus W9D WS with a LSI Raid Controller.
>>
>> ...
>>
>>> 2 x Raid1 SSD's with 256GB
>>>
>>> On the first Raid1 is windows installed (UEFI) and on the second Raid1 is
>>> Linux (oSUSE) installed (UEFI)
>>>
>>> When I install the system and make the 1. REBOOT all is correct oSUSE is
>>> booting again, all works correct.
>>>
>>> But after a shutdown only windows is booting again, oSUSE tell me
>>>
>>> Initrd is loading but it is hang.
>>>
>>> Sometime 1-3 Days oSUSE is booting?
>>
>> ...
>>
>>> This is always on different Systems with the same LSI Controller.
>>
>> Does this mean you have multiple computers all identical, all with this
>> controller, all dual booting Windows and Linux?  This is a strange
>> setup.  Why do you do this?
> 
> NO ;)
> 
> This is the system from a friend an I change only the Motherboard for Tests
> 
> 
>>> Have I configure the Raid Controller wrong, or is this Controller broken,
>>> or have Grun2-efi Problem with this Controller ....
>>
>> Would you find it surprising that LSI never considered this $600
>> Enterprise 8 port RAID controller would be used in a dual boot
>> workstation role, with 4 SSDs in two RAID1 sets?
>>
>> My guess is that this is a Grub2 issue and it's having trouble seeing
>> both disk devices as enumerated by the UEFI implementation.
>>
>> What happens when you create a 4 SSD RAID10 and partition the resulting
>> single disk device into two equal halves, one partition for SuSE and one
>> for Windows?  With everything on one disk device this should work much
>> more reliably.
> 
> But why it is booting same times (?) and only stop booting on a shutdown ?

I suppose with "shutdown" you mean "power off"? Does this happen if you
shut down from Linux, Windows, or both? What if you reset the system
again after the shutdown? What if you do a warm reboot from Windows?
What exactly are the messages you see in the failure case?

To me this looks like a problem either in the BIOS or in the Option ROM
of the LSI controller. Sometimes the BIOS has difficulties with booting
from a secondary disk (although that *should* be history in the times of
UEFI). As Stan suggested, a setup with two partitions on a single RAID
volume may be easier to handle for the BIOS. I might also be interesting
to swap the OSes (Windows on 2nd drive, Linux on the 1st).

It could also be a GRUB2 problem, but GRUB2 essentially just reads
blocks from the disk using UEFI calls, there's really not a lot it can
mess up.

Martin

> 

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