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Ubuntu 11.10 with RAID not booting after installing mdadm? read on…

bomski — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:14:56 +0000

Well after monkeying about with a busted 11.10 installation (call it a learning curve with Linux); I decided to reinstall the OS from fresh. I have 4x2TB drives utilising Ubuntu’s FakeRAID (software RAID), along with a 500Gb OS drive (the target for my refresh).

TL;DR – solution to this problem is at bottom of this post;

After booting from freshly minted 11.10 CD, installing OS with updates, rebooting back into the GUI, all flawless… Only thing missing was my RAID array. So I installed mdadm; a trivial matter… again everything was fine.. Went for another reboot; after getting the ‘loading operating system’ message (which I believe to be the GRUB bootloader) I got a blank screen… nothing…

Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to force the system to hard reset; after getting to the same point I was greeted with the initramfs CLI; telling me that one of the elements in the RAID array was degraded… brilliant… Typed ‘exit’ to circumvent doing anything nefarious with the initramfs commands, i got back into Ubuntu; checked the disk utility and there was my RAID array. Now slightly baffled I decided to check the integrity of the array… some 23 hours later it all came back checked, synced and verified; no errors.

Now even more puzzled than when I started I proceeded to hit ubuntuforums.org (an invaluable resource IMHO!); standard searches didn’t turn anything useful up, and my post regarding this didn’t really get any interest. I then stumbled upon this gem of a post; after wading through the responses I found a comment from ‘dangriffin’; seems that on large disk arrays; the integrity checks are done before all the disks are detected!

His solution is a very simple one; open a terminal:

sudo nano /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/mdadm-functions

In there, look for the following function:

degraded_arrays()
{
mdadm --misc --scan --detail --test >/dev/null 2>&1
return $((! $?))
}

and change it to:

degraded_arrays()
{
udevadm settle
mdadm --misc --scan --detail --test >/dev/null 2>&1
return $((! $?))
}

then do a:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot and you should be all set! Seems that adding ‘udevadm settle’ to the function makes the initramfs wait until all the drives are spun up and detected before trying to check their integrity. Lets hope this one gets put in for Ubuntu 12!

TIP 2: I was also getting issues with mdadm –detail; it was reporting a warning like ‘mdadm: only give one device per ARRAY line’; turns out this is another bug! When you create a RAID array it gives it the default name of ‘RAID Array’… this actually screws up the mdadm.conf file; to fix this warning do the following:

sudo nano /etc/mdadm.conf

look for any reference to the name ‘RAID Array’ (I had two references in there); simply remove the space between the name so it becomes ‘RAIDArray’, Ctrl+X to save and Roberts your father’s brother!

Pistols at the ready…

bomski — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:03:05 +0000

Brilliant…

Pragmatic Responsive Web Design

bomski — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:47:27 +0000

Following on from my last post; i’ve been doing some spleunking into ‘responsive design’ – the latest buzz term circling the web design / development camp. I’ve stumbled across a rather insightful slideshare presentation from Brian and Stephanie Rieger; they worked on browser.nokia.com at Breaking Development conference. For that project, they invented a new way to combine client side information with device detection. It’s a really interesting approach and certainly worth assimilating!

Pragmatic responsive design

View more presentations from yiibu

Foundation: Rapid prototyping framework

bomski — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:35:12 +0000

First off; I know it’s been a looong time since I last posted an update; suffice to say i’ve had a lot of things on in my life that have kept me preoccupied… but enough of my whining; i’m here to talk about a promising new framework I stumbled across called Foundation; its from the guys at Zurb who made the lovely CSS3 buttons that I utilise a lot (with my own modifications of course! will be blogging the changes shortly).

This framework designed to allow you to depoly rapid, clickable prototypes, with built in placeholders for images, buttons, forms etc. On the face of it you may say ‘yawn – seen that before’ but where Foundation differs is the underlying grid system. It takes all of the best bits from numerous grid systems, adds a dash of fluidity and some clever scripting to allow you to build one site, and deploy it across a multitude of devices (desktops, tablets, mobile).

I am seriously looking forward to getting to grips with Foundation; i’ve always been impressed with the work the guys at Zurb, and i’m hoping to be able to contribute something back to the community.

I’ll keep this page updated as I find new and useful features!

Teaser Trailer – Transformers: The Dark of the Moon

bomski — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:57:26 +0000

Here’s the teaser trailer for the new Transformers movie : Dark of the Moon

Now i’m going to go out on a limb here; but I think that Transformer on the ship is Alpha Trion…?

been a while…

bomski — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:13:14 +0000

I’ve been not updating this blog (at all if i’m honest!)… this is primarily due to me shifting jobs and getting reoriented to their processes and systems. Now i’m back on the ball you’ll see frequent updates…

Bomski

Samsung Galaxy S – FTW!

bomski — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:54:43 +0000

Sat on my couch messing with my new Samsung Galaxy S… I have to say i’m blown away by it… So simple to use, very intuitive…

F1 2010 – OMFG!

bomski — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:38:42 +0000

Am sat on my couch, and my jaw is literally on the floor… Just seen a promo vid for Codemaster’s f1 2010 and i cannot believe just how realistic this game has got. Take a look for yourself:

I had one of the F1 titles for the Nintendo 64 and i used to think that was awesome!

Dead Space 2 – rubber pants required*

bomski — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:59:02 +0000

My girlfriend will be testament to this; i’m a sissy… I’ve been mustering up the courage to complete Dead Space on the PS3 for a while, but i can only play it in sporadic bursts (a. because i’m traumatised far too easily and b). 5.1 and Dead Space easily scares the crap outta me!). As i’m nearing the end of my psychosis from this game, joy-of-joys – there’s Dead Space 2!

Admittedly, i’ve known it’s been in development for a while, and just when i thought it couldn’t get much worse; there’s an E3 trailer!

I’m kind of coming to terms with having to play this (and i’m sure there’s lots of you out there who have the ‘i’ve got to see this to the end’ feeling with a game series), so i guess it’s time to don the rubber pants* one more time and start slicing the Necromorphs up some more!

Dead Space 2 is released on the PS3, 360, and PC on January 25, 2011.

* for those of you who don’t get the rubber pants bit; it’s in case i shit myself!

Orange Wednesday Recommendation: Salt

bomski — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:13:04 +0000

Sorry for not posting last week; my life got turned upside-down briefly! I’m back with this weeks Orange Wednesday recommendation: Salt…

Trailer:

As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who is Salt?”

It’s great to see Angelina return to acting; and she does indeed deliver; it’s a complicated plot, but one which plays out perfectly…

Are you ready to find out who is Salt? Hit me up in the comments and let me know what you think!