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#1 2025-11-10 21:48:14

fuchur
Member
Registered: 2025-11-10
Posts: 3  

Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

Hi

I have a devuan  on a software raid1. If i upgrade to excalibur i can't boot excalibur. If i install
excalibur with the netinstall iso it is the same. I can't run excalibur on software raid1.

My settings on daedalus are:

ls -al /dev/sd*

brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  0 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  1 10. Nov 17:02 /dev/sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 10 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda10
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 11 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda11
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 12 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda12
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 13 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda13
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  2 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  3 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  5 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda5
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  6 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda6
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  7 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda7
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  8 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda8
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  9 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sda9
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 10. Nov 17:02 /dev/sdb1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 26 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb10
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 27 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb11
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 28 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb12
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 29 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb13
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 18 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 19 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 21 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb5
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 22 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb6
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 23 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb7
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 24 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb8
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 25 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/sdb9

ls -al /dev/md*

brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 0 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/md0
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 1 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/md1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 2 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/md2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 3 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/md3
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 4 10. Nov 17:01 /dev/md4
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 5 10. Nov 17:02 /dev/md5
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 6 10. Nov 17:02 /dev/md6
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 7 10. Nov 17:02 /dev/md7
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 8 10. Nov 17:02 /dev/md8

and my /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf:

...
...
### mdadm --detail --scan ###
ARRAY /dev/md0 metadata=0.90 UUID=35db0565:bdb0a530:cb89c46c:33eba8ec
ARRAY /dev/md1 metadata=0.90 UUID=590d4c31:66a551d9:edd8d016:611227ea
ARRAY /dev/md2 metadata=0.90 UUID=a69a5500:3b8eb3dd:edd8d016:611227ea
ARRAY /dev/md3 metadata=0.90 UUID=74568af8:de558d15:edd8d016:611227ea
ARRAY /dev/md4 metadata=0.90 UUID=5cf35ac9:42f8c8f8:edd8d016:611227ea
ARRAY /dev/md5 metadata=0.90 UUID=f2fbc821:cb4ccbc1:edd8d016:611227ea
ARRAY /dev/md6 metadata=0.90 UUID=2bd8ae10:6c9d0453:edd8d016:611227ea
ARRAY /dev/md7 metadata=0.90 UUID=b6764357:172ddd81:cb89c46c:33eba8ec
ARRAY /dev/md8 metadata=0.90 UUID=4631c52e:843a9462:cb89c46c:33eba8ec

### mdadm --detail --scan --verbose ###
#ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=35db0565:bdb0a530:cb89c46c:33eba8ec
#   devices=/dev/sda5,/dev/sdb5
#ARRAY /dev/md1 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=590d4c31:66a551d9:edd8d016:611227ea
#   devices=/dev/sda6,/dev/sdb6
#ARRAY /dev/md2 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=a69a5500:3b8eb3dd:edd8d016:611227ea
#   devices=/dev/sda7,/dev/sdb7
#ARRAY /dev/md3 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=74568af8:de558d15:edd8d016:611227ea
#   devices=/dev/sda8,/dev/sdb8
#ARRAY /dev/md4 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=5cf35ac9:42f8c8f8:edd8d016:611227ea
#   devices=/dev/sda9,/dev/sdb9
#ARRAY /dev/md5 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=f2fbc821:cb4ccbc1:edd8d016:611227ea
#   devices=/dev/sda10,/dev/sdb10
#ARRAY /dev/md6 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=2bd8ae10:6c9d0453:edd8d016:611227ea
#   devices=/dev/sda11,/dev/sdb11
#ARRAY /dev/md7 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=b6764357:172ddd81:cb89c46c:33eba8ec
#   devices=/dev/sda12,/dev/sdb12
#ARRAY /dev/md8 level=raid1 num-devices=2 metadata=0.90 UUID=4631c52e:843a9462:cb89c46c:33eba8ec
#   devices=/dev/sda13,/dev/sdb13

After upgrade daedalus to excalibur (or new install excalibur) and try to boot i see several times:
Running: scripts/local-block
and the its opens a busybox shell.

If i now type "ls -al /dev/sd*" in got this:

brw-------    1 0        0           8,   0 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/sda
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  16 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/sdb

and by "ls -al /dev/md*" this:

brw-------    1 0        0           9,   0 Nov 10 01:26 /dev/md0
brw-------    1 0        0           9,   8 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/md8
brw-------    1 0        0         259,   0 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/md8p1
brw-------    1 0        0         259,   1 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/md8p2
brw-------    1 0        0         259,   2 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/md8p3
brw-------    1 0        0         259,   3 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/md8p5
brw-------    1 0        0         259,   4 Nov 10 01:25 /dev/md8p6

the last 40 lines from dmesg:

[    4.415900] usb 1-2.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[    4.418091] usb 1-2.4: Product: USB2.0 HUB
[    4.420597] hub 1-2.4:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.422778] hub 1-2.4:1.0: 4 ports detected
[    4.502171]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 sda12 sda13 >
[    4.504859] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[    4.520338]  sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 < sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 sdb8 sdb9 sdb10 sdb11 sdb12 sdb13 >
[    4.523111] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[    4.565092] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 3 using ohci-pci
[    4.689374] md/raid1:md8: active with 2 out of 2 mirrors
[    4.691551] md8: detected capacity change from 0 to 108531584
[    4.703950] device-mapper: core: CONFIG_IMA_DISABLE_HTABLE is disabled. Duplicate IMA measurements will not be recorded in the IMA log.
[    4.706245] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
[    4.708621] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.50.0-ioctl (2025-04-28) initialised: dm-devel@lists.linux.dev
[    4.709063] usb 1-2.4.3: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
[    4.752157]  md8: p1 p2 p3 < p5 p6 >
[    4.754464] md8: partition table partially beyond EOD, truncated
[    4.757160] md8: p6 size 62914560 extends beyond EOD, truncated
[    4.757161] usb 2-8: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    4.836704] usb 1-2.4.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a12, idProduct=0001, bcdDevice=52.76
[    4.839117] usb 1-2.4.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    5.049056] usb 2-8: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    5.153101] usb usb2-port8: attempt power cycle
[    5.353075] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 4 using ohci-pci
[    5.765081] usb 2-8: device not accepting address 4, error -62
[    5.949074] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ohci-pci
[    6.361077] usb 2-8: device not accepting address 5, error -62
[    6.363620] usb usb2-port8: unable to enumerate USB device
[   18.293082] scsi host6: Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 7.0
[   18.293082]         <Adaptec 2940 Ultra2 SCSI adapter (OEM)>
[   18.293082]         aic7890/91: Ultra2 Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
[   18.293082] 
[   22.329035] raid6: sse2x4   gen()  6481 MB/s
[   22.397084] raid6: sse2x2   gen()  6365 MB/s
[   22.465023] raid6: sse2x1   gen()  4907 MB/s
[   22.467541] raid6: using algorithm sse2x4 gen() 6481 MB/s
[   22.537025] raid6: .... xor() 1851 MB/s, rmw enabled
[   22.539616] raid6: using intx1 recovery algorithm
[   22.551090] xor: measuring software checksum speed
[   22.553894]    prefetch64-sse  : 10620 MB/sec
[   22.556676]    generic_sse     :  9950 MB/sec
[   22.559114] xor: using function: prefetch64-sse (10620 MB/sec)
[   22.569735] async_tx: api initialized (async)
[   43.777082] md/raid1:md0: active with 1 out of 2 mirrors
[   43.779121] md0: detected capacity change from 0 to 62914432

To test what happens. From a other linux i chroot excalibur and remove mdadm with
"apt remove mdadm" (i know i can't run excalibur on /dev/md1, it's for testing only).
I reboot excalibur and now i see this:

"ls -al /dev/sd*"

brw-------    1 0        0           8,   0 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   1 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda1
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  10 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda10
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  11 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda11
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  12 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda12
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  13 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda13
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   2 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda2
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   3 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda3
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   5 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda5
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   6 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda6
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   7 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda7
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   8 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda8
brw-------    1 0        0           8,   9 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sda9
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  16 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  17 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb1
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  26 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb10
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  27 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb11
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  28 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb12
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  29 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb13
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  18 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb2
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  19 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb3
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  21 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb5
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  22 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb6
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  23 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb7
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  24 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb8
brw-------    1 0        0           8,  25 Nov 10 01:38 /dev/sdb9

and the last 40 lines from dmesg:

[    4.464448] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[    4.494119]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 sda12 sda13 >
[    4.496997] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[    4.509077] usb 1-2.4: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
[    4.525091] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 3 using ohci-pci
[    4.534870]  sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 < sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 sdb8 sdb9 sdb10 sdb11 sdb12 sdb13 >
[    4.537843] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[    4.552617] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[    4.626410] device-mapper: core: CONFIG_IMA_DISABLE_HTABLE is disabled. Duplicate IMA measurements will not be recorded in the IMA log.
[    4.628846] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
[    4.631422] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.50.0-ioctl (2025-04-28) initialised: dm-devel@lists.linux.dev
[    4.634336] usb 1-2.4: New USB device found, idVendor=214b, idProduct=7250, bcdDevice= 1.00
[    4.636837] usb 1-2.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[    4.639380] usb 1-2.4: Product: USB2.0 HUB
[    4.642468] hub 1-2.4:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.645112] hub 1-2.4:1.0: 4 ports detected
[    4.717084] usb 2-8: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    4.929072] usb 1-2.4.3: new full-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
[    5.013107] usb 2-8: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    5.056771] usb 1-2.4.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a12, idProduct=0001, bcdDevice=52.76
[    5.059414] usb 1-2.4.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    5.121103] usb usb2-port8: attempt power cycle
[    5.317086] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 4 using ohci-pci
[    5.494025] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Intenso  Business         0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[    5.641008] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 15237120 512-byte logical blocks: (7.80 GB/7.27 GiB)
[    5.644485] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[    5.647149] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[    5.647857] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Asking for cache data failed
[    5.650535] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[    5.729093] usb 2-8: device not accepting address 4, error -62
[    5.913083] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ohci-pci
[    5.963129]  sdc: sdc1 sdc2 < sdc5 sdc6 sdc7 sdc8 >
[    5.966197] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[    6.325087] usb 2-8: device not accepting address 5, error -62
[    6.327790] usb usb2-port8: unable to enumerate USB device
[   18.293079] scsi host6: Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 7.0
[   18.293079]         <Adaptec 2940 Ultra2 SCSI adapter (OEM)>
[   18.293079]         aic7890/91: Ultra2 Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
[   18.293079] 
[  396.036000] usb 1-2.1: USB disconnect, device number 4

I have excalibur install on /dev/md1.

I have downgrade mdadm, eudev and initramfs-tools from
daedalus in excalibur (chroot) but it is the same.

Can someone help?

Thank you fuchur

Offline

#2 2025-11-11 07:47:18

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn
Member
Registered: 2023-11-27
Posts: 427  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

Welcome to the forum.

this happened recently(no idea if it will help in your specific situation):

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=7213


Be Excellent to each other and Party On!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rph_1DODXDU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted%27s_Excellent_Adventure
Do unto others as you would have them do instantaneously back to you!

Offline

#3 Yesterday 00:30:02

fuchur
Member
Registered: 2025-11-10
Posts: 3  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

Hi

Thank you stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn.
It doesn't help in my situation.

For testing purposes, I installed Debian Trixie on md1. I'm getting the same errors.
I have no idea why it's like that. And I've tried a lot of things. sad
Okay, I'll keep looking ...

Is anyone here who is running Excalibur or Trixie on a software RAID?

fuchur

Offline

#4 Yesterday 03:02:44

ralph.ronnquist
Administrator
From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS
Registered: 2016-11-30
Posts: 1,515  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

Have you verified uuid? it's unusual for me to see ":" rather than "-" in uuid, though it may well be an mdadm thing(?)

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

In any case I'll set up a VM trial to see if I can replicate your problem.

Offline

#5 Yesterday 13:47:34

ralph.ronnquist
Administrator
From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS
Registered: 2016-11-30
Posts: 1,515  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

I've now set up a VM with 2 disks /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, with some 8 partitions each, to form 7 raid1 assemblies, while /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 are set up as "BIOS boot" partitions for grub. Though only /dev/sd1 is in use for booting.

The key step for making it work is to not install grub via the installer but by hand from the C-A-F2 console, and then bind-mount /run from the installer onto
/target/run before the chroot into /target and the grub installation.

If you missed out on that, you can recover by starting the installer in menu choice 1, and progress that to the hostname dialog; then go to C-A -F2 console for recovery actions, for example:

# mdadm -C -n2 -x0 -lraid1 -v /dev/md0 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2
# mount -t ext4 /dev/md0 /mnt
# mount --bind /run /mnt/run
# chroot /mnt /bin/bash -i

and continue in the chroot

# mount -t proc proc /proc
# mount -t devtmpfs dev /dev
# mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts
# mount -t sysfs sys /sys
# mdadm --assemble --scan
# mount -a
# apt-get install --reinstall grub
# update-grub
# grub-install /dev/sda
# update-initramfs -u
# exit

and then

reboot

The above is on the assumption that md0 has sda2 and sdb2, and contains the root filesystem. Further /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf must be duly prepared; but the key is still to have md0 assembled in the console and then that /run is bind-mounted into the chroot before you go into that for the further rescue actions.

HTH

Offline

#6 Yesterday 14:20:47

g4sra
Member
Registered: 2018-12-12
Posts: 70  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

@ralph.ronnquist, the mdadm report looks normal to me (example from Daedalus of four SATA disks raided in pairs)

mdadm --detail --scan
ARRAY /dev/md1 metadata=1.2 name=localhost:1 UUID=bbfe098d:4d1afad0:46f8d336:6e554bce
ARRAY /dev/md0 metadata=1.2 name=localhost:0 UUID=ad7eb025:c0a54024:836db957:a0985a5b

@fuchur
Is there a specific reason you are raiding individual partitions ?
Performance will suffer.

check /proc/mdstat to confirm raid integrity '[UU]' (healthy example from Daedalus)

cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 sdd[0] sde[1]
      499975488 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 0/4 pages [0KB], 65536KB chunk

md1 : active (auto-read-only) raid1 sdf[0] sdg[1]
      499975488 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 0/4 pages [0KB], 65536KB chunk

unused devices: <none>

These two issues are serious and should be addressed

[    4.752157] md8: p1 p2 p3 < p5 p6 >
[    4.754464] md8: partition table partially beyond EOD, truncated
[    4.757160] md8: p6 size 62914560 extends beyond EOD, truncated

.. snip ..

[   43.777082] md/raid1:md0: active with 1 out of 2 mirrors

In my experience USB device failures can cause other errors especially when a power cycle is triggered.
Disconnect this device if you can.

[    4.757161] usb 2-8: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    4.836704] usb 1-2.4.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0a12, idProduct=0001, bcdDevice=52.76
[    4.839117] usb 1-2.4.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    5.049056] usb 2-8: device descriptor read/64, error -62
[    5.153101] usb usb2-port8: attempt power cycle
[    5.353075] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 4 using ohci-pci
[    5.765081] usb 2-8: device not accepting address 4, error -62
[    5.949074] usb 2-8: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ohci-pci
[    6.361077] usb 2-8: device not accepting address 5, error -62
[    6.363620] usb usb2-port8: unable to enumerate USB device

Cannot be helpful without more to go on, sorry.

Offline

#7 Yesterday 22:31:53

fuchur
Member
Registered: 2025-11-10
Posts: 3  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

Hi

First of all, thank you for your help. It seems I didn't provide enough information, sorry.

I was gentoo user from 2003 until 2018 before that redhat. Since 2018 I uses devuan.
But i have allways more as one dist on my computer. And always a debian on one partition.
Now i have on md0 daedalus, on md1 also devuan and on md2 debian bookworm.
I have been working almost exclusively with Devuan since 2018. Upgrade from ascii to beowulf to chimaera to daedalus without reinstalling.

I also always use software raid1. If one hard disk shows any error, I buy two new ones and replace both.

What I have found out so far:
My partitions  fdisk -l /dev/sda and  fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sda: 465,76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: XXXXX
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa84fef2b

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *         2048   2099199   2097152     1G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2         2099200   8390655   6291456     3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3         8392702 976773167 968380466 461,8G  5 Extended
/dev/sda5         8392704  71307263  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda6        71309312 134223871  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda7       134225920 197140479  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda8       197142528 260057087  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda9       260059136 322973695  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda10      322975744 532690943 209715200   100G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda11      532692992 742408191 209715200   100G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda12      742410240 868239359 125829120    60G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda13      868241408 976773167 108531760  51,8G fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 465,76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: XXXXXX
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x23f22cdd

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *         2048   2099199   2097152     1G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2         2099200   8390655   6291456     3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3         8392702 976773167 968380466 461,8G  5 Extended
/dev/sdb5         8392704  71307263  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb6        71309312 134223871  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb7       134225920 197140479  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb8       197142528 260057087  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb9       260059136 322973695  62914560    30G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb10      322975744 532690943 209715200   100G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb11      532692992 742408191 209715200   100G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb12      742410240 868239359 125829120    60G fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb13      868241408 976773167 108531760  51,8G fd Linux raid autodetect

I  try upgrade or netinstall exkalibur on md1 it doesn't work.
By daedalus i have by "ls -al /dev/disk/by-uuid/"

insgesamt 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 380 12. Nov 22:30 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 120 12. Nov 22:30 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 00e3a430-c3f3-415a-8184-b9f296dfcb4a -> ../../md6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 16aeeea9-79e7-45af-b910-c9f67a1e2e71 -> ../../dm-0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 205d2bd2-921c-4026-b75e-852d5ff4b776 -> ../../md4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 20c75327-2c6c-45e3-b84c-6dbe7274345c -> ../../dm-1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 2e65ba46-112d-4db4-a59f-85347acd6a93 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 31769cbd-e6aa-4389-bf84-f08820c082c0 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 344d7261-85e7-492d-8af3-7bb401e5b0ec -> ../../dm-3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 47f3e46c-88c8-4f7d-ae23-2d4a30aed144 -> ../../md2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 65855ccf-6959-4f44-9627-3c0e8c7dea57 -> ../../dm-5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 9147d4bc-2be0-45ca-8480-11052c08749b -> ../../dm-6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 96317a0a-5a62-41c5-acff-4e00e4da6257 -> ../../md7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 9c398194-0af4-46a6-aa22-a3eb22cadad9 -> ../../md3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 a79feef2-3f48-4bc7-b5bf-ace12566dbe0 -> ../../md8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 12. Nov 21:32 abe5ff0e-b8ef-490c-8eab-bec30bb237b7 -> ../../dm-4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 d6ddee59-f8c7-4e29-85c6-8670b0ad6e6a -> ../../md1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 d866b428-e3af-4dea-9f6c-60f3f56aa302 -> ../../md0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 12. Nov 21:32 deac6dd7-a584-4c2b-88e6-f978ef0c19f2 -> ../../md5

and by excalibur from busybox

total 0
drwxr-xr-x    2 0        0              100 Nov 12 13:53 .
drwxr-xr-x    6 0        0              120 Nov 12 13:53 ..
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0        0               11 Nov 12 13:53 d6ddee59-f8c7-4e29-85c6-8670b0ad6e6a -> ../../md8p6
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0        0                9 Nov 12 13:53 d866b428-e3af-4dea-9f6c-60f3f56aa302 -> ../../md0
lrwxrwxrwx    1 0        0               11 Nov 12 13:53 e1e1fbca-b4f3-42f5-8553-898219668ad4 -> ../../md8p1

To find out which partitions are md0 I mount md0 in busybox

mkdir /aaa
mount /dev/md0 /aaa -t ext2
ls -al /aaa

insgesamt 43404
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        1 14. Aug 2010  boot -> .
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   259588  7. Mai 2025  config-6.1.0-35-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   259590 26. Aug 22:35 config-6.1.0-39-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     4096 25. Jan 2017  debian
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     4096 14. Dez 2013  extlinux
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root     4096 25. Okt 2014  fedora
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 21. Jan 2018  gentoo
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 12. Nov 21:30 grub
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root     4096 17. Okt 2011  grub-17.10.11
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     4096  4. Sep 2010  grub-26.09.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       70 24. Aug 2004  grub-einrichten
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 30. Nov 2003  grub-genntoo.org
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 30. Nov 2003  grub.org
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      733 30. Nov 2003  initrd-erstellen
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       25  7. Sep 02:01 initrd.img -> initrd.img-6.1.0-39-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13319909 12. Nov 21:29 initrd.img-6.1.0-35-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13311761 12. Nov 21:29 initrd.img-6.1.0-39-amd64
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       25  7. Sep 02:01 initrd.img.old -> initrd.img-6.1.0-35-amd64
drwx------ 2 root root    16384 30. Nov 2003  lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 23. Aug 2014  memtest86
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    98964 29. Jul 2019  memtest86.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   138712 11. Feb 2023  memtest86+ia32.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   139776 11. Feb 2023  memtest86+ia32.efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 23. Aug 2014  memtest86plus
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   144312 11. Feb 2023  memtest86+x64.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   145408 11. Feb 2023  memtest86+x64.efi
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     4096  8. Sep 2014  mint
-rw------- 1 root root       32 11. Feb 2017  quota.group
-rw------- 1 root root        0 30. Nov 2003  quota.user
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       83  7. Mai 2025  System.map-6.1.0-35-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       83 26. Aug 22:35 System.map-6.1.0-39-amd64
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       22  7. Sep 02:01 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-6.1.0-39-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  8193984  7. Mai 2025  vmlinuz-6.1.0-35-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  8230848 26. Aug 22:35 vmlinuz-6.1.0-39-amd64
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       22  7. Sep 02:01 vmlinuz.old -> vmlinuz-6.1.0-35-amd64

It is my boot partition /dev/sda1 ???
Ok we want the uuid from my disks

ls -al /dev/disk/by-uuid/ >/aaa/uuid.txt

Umount /aaa and reboot. And now my system was broken. I can't boot an other linux, grub error. I run rescure mode from netinstall stick run fsck.ext2 on /dev/sda1 and the same on /dev/sdb1. I mount /dev/sda1 to check:

ls -al sda1
insgesamt 40096
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root     151020 17. Nov 2024  boot
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root     157184 17. Nov 2024  config-6.1.0-35-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root    8186236 12. Nov 03:52 config-6.1.0-39-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 fuchur root       4096 12. Nov 03:52 fedora
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root        172 12. Nov 03:49 grub-17.10.11
lrwxrwxrwx 1 fuchur fuchur       27 12. Nov 18:31 grub-einrichten -> vmlinuz-6.12.48+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root        191 31. Aug 16:01 grub.org
lrwxrwxrwx 1 fuchur fuchur       30 12. Nov 18:31 initrd-erstellen -> initrd.img-6.12.48+deb13-amd64
lrwxrwxrwx 1 fuchur fuchur       27 12. Nov 18:31 initrd.img-6.1.0-35-amd64 -> vmlinuz-6.12.43+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root     283278 27. Aug 10:10 initrd.img.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root     283306 20. Sep 20:41 .keep
drwx------ 2 fuchur root       4096 31. Aug 15:53 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root         83 27. Aug 10:10 memtest86+x64.efi
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root         83 20. Sep 20:41 quota.group
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root   12101568 27. Aug 10:10 quota.user
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root    7424114 12. Nov 03:26 System.map-6.1.0-35-amd64
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root     152064 17. Nov 2024  System.map-6.1.0-39-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 fuchur root       4096 12. Nov 15:05 uuid
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root     155992 17. Nov 2024  vmlinuz
-rw-r--r-- 1 fuchur root   12109760 20. Sep 20:41 vmlinuz-6.1.0-39-amd64

On sdb1 i also see wrong links, missing files (see above).
Here's what happened:
Excalibur creates a RAID array from my partitions sda1 and sdb1.
See my output of fdisk -l, sda1 and sdb1 are not RAID partitions.
Later today i do a netinstall with Daedalus to check i am right.

Thank you

fuchur

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#8 Yesterday 23:06:01

ralph.ronnquist
Administrator
From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS
Registered: 2016-11-30
Posts: 1,515  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

You confuse me. What is the problem, really?
The installer doesn't build any md assemblies by itself. And the raid1 setup seems fine.

However the lack of a bootloader partition for grub on the boot disk is a problem. You should have /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1 partitions assigned as BOOT_bios partitions for grub to use (choosing which is the boot disk). So you can't use them in a raid and you can't install a filesystem on them.

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#9 Today 11:10:36

steve_v
Member
Registered: 2018-01-11
Posts: 541  

Re: Can't run Devuan Excalibur on Software Raid

Confusing to say the least, and not least because of the large number of RAID'ed partitions... Likely in squarely in the "easy to fix if I was sitting in front of it, very difficult to diagnose remotely" category.

To (attempt to) clarify:
Where is your /boot supposed to be? Is it a RAID array? If so, which disks/partitions should comprise it?
Where is your boot MBR/PBR and where is GRUB stage1 installed?

Excalibur creates a RAID array from my partitions sda1 and sdb1.
See my output of fdisk -l, sda1 and sdb1 are not RAID partitions.

So sda1 and sdb1 are supposed to be independent devices, not part of an array? They contain duplicate but independent /boot filesystems, yes?

Partition type doesn't really decide whether a device is part of a RAID array, it's just a hint. Mdadm will scan for signatures and assemble what it can.
What does 'blkid' and/or 'wipefs -n' say about those disks (sda, sdb) and partitions (sda1, sdb1)? Do any of them have RAID signatures on them?

---

You should have /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1 partitions assigned as BOOT_bios partitions for grub to use (choosing which is the boot disk). So you can't use them in a raid and you can't install a filesystem on them.

Both "legacy" BIOS (MBR) and UEFI (GPT) can usually boot just fine from MDRAID1, since the RAID headers (v<1.1) are at the end of the member devices and they are otherwise indistinguishable from normal partitions.
The latter (along with putting EFI on MDRAID1) is very much "unsupported" though, and will require diddling with GRUB config and/or use of the '--removable' flag when installing EFI entries.

MBR just needs an MBR/PBR (and some free blocks for the stage1 loader) and a partition GRUB can read, UEFI just needs an EFI/ESP partition the firmware can read. RAID1 works for both.

For (NVME/GPT) example:

nvme0n1     259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   256M  0 part  
│ └─md0       9:0    0 255.9M  0 raid1 /boot
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0 927.3G  0 part  
│ └─md1       9:1    0 927.1G  0 raid1 /
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0     4G  0 part  [SWAP]
nvme1n1     259:4    0 931.5G  0 disk  
├─nvme1n1p1 259:5    0   256M  0 part  
│ └─md0       9:0    0 255.9M  0 raid1 /boot
├─nvme1n1p2 259:6    0 927.3G  0 part  
│ └─md1       9:1    0 927.1G  0 raid1 /
└─nvme1n1p3 259:7    0     4G  0 part  [SWAP]
/dev/nvme0n1p1       2048     526335     524288   256M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2     526336 1945131007 1944604672 927.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p3 1945131008 1953519615    8388608     4G Linux swap
/dev/nvme1n1p1       2048     526335     524288   256M EFI System
/dev/nvme1n1p2     526336 1945131007 1944604672 927.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme1n1p3 1945131008 1953519615    8388608     4G Linux swap
/boot/EFI
├── BOOT
│   └── BOOTX64.EFI
└── gentoo
    └── grubx64.efi

Another box around here has a near idential layout with BIOS/MBR boot, /boot on RAID1, and grub stage1 installed to the MBR of both member devices... I'd have used that one as an example, but it's got 19 drives so it's a mite messy to wade through the lsblk output tongue

Last edited by steve_v (Today 11:35:19)


Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

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