This guide starts once the live CD has been booted and you've got a shell prompt.
Set keyboard layout:
# loadkeys uk
Load the raid modules
# modprobe raid0 # modprobe raid1 # modprobe raid5
Partition disks
partition /dev/sda
# cfdisk /dev/sda
cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.13.0.1)
Disk Drive: /dev/sda
Size: 203928109056 bytes, 203.9 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders:
24792
Name Flags Part Type FS Type[Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1 Boot Primary Linux raid autodetect 222.09
sda2 Primary Linux raid autodetect 2048.10
sda3 Primary Linux raid autodetect 20003.89
sda4 Primary Linux raid autodetect 181647.09partition /dev/sdb
# cfdisk /dev/sdb
cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.13.0.1)
Disk Drive: /dev/sdb
Size: 203928109056 bytes, 203.9 GB
Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders:
24792
Name Flags Part Type FS Type[Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sdb1 Boot Primary Linux raid autodetect 222.09
sdb2 Primary Linux raid autodetect 2048.10
sdb3 Primary Linux raid autodetect 20003.89
sdb4 Primary Linux raid autodetect 181647.09Create RAID arrays
(/boot **must** be RAID1)# mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md2 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md3 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3 # mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md4 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdb4
Format the newly created RAID drives
# mkfs.ext2 /dev/md1 # mkfs.ext3 /dev/md3 # mkreiserfs /dev/md4 # mkswap /dev/md2 # swapon /dev/md2
Mount your raid drives for installation
# mount /dev/md3 /mnt # cd /mnt # mkdir home # mkdir boot # mount /dev/md1 /mnt/boot # mount /dev/md4 /mnt/home
Continue the setup from the menu. Skip the disk partitioning and mounting etc. and see below for bootloader.
# /arch/setup
Bootloader
Skip the last step (Installing the bootloader) as we need to do this manually because of our raid arrays. (Side note: When within the grub shell, "root" refers to the /boot partition. If you do not have a seperate boot partition, then the / partition.)
# grub
We need to install grub to both drives seperately.
Install to sda
grub> device (hd0) /dev/sda grub> root (hd0,0) grub> setup (hd0)
Install to sdb
grub> device (hd0) /dev/sdb grub> root (hd0,0) grub> setup (hd0)
The last step is to edit grub's menu.lst file to ensure the system is bootable.
# (0) Arch Linux title Arch Linux root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/md3 ro md=1,/dev/sdb1,/dev/sdc1 md=3,/dev/sdb3,/ dev/sdc3 md=4,/dev/sdb4,/dev/sdc4 md=2,/dev/sdb2,/dev/sdc2 initrd /kernel26.img
Troubleshooting
Should your system not boot and you need to boot off the CD again to fix grub, you can easily jump to the last step of the install process by reassembling your raid arrays and then mounting them.
[root@archlive ~]# loadkeys uk [root@archlive ~]# [root@archlive ~]# modprobe raid0 [root@archlive ~]# modprobe raid1 [root@archlive ~]# modprobe raid5 [root@archlive ~]# [root@archlive ~]# mdadm --assemble /dev/md1 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdc1 [root@archlive ~]# mdadm --assemble /dev/md2 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdc2 [root@archlive ~]# mdadm --assemble /dev/md3 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdc3 [root@archlive ~]# mdadm --assemble /dev/md4 /dev/sda4 /dev/sdc4 [root@archlive ~]# [root@archlive ~]# mount /dev/md3 /mnt [root@archlive ~]# mount /dev/md1 /mnt/boot [root@archlive ~]# mount /dev/md4 /mnt/home [root@archlive ~]#
