Dual Boot openSUSE and Windows with Weird Intel Matrix Storage Manager Config

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I just bought myself a new laptop, and I’m trying to install openSUSE 12.1 (DVD, x64) alongside Windows 7 x64. I’ve done several installs in the past, but I’m running into an issue with a weird “fake-raid” setup, and I’m pretty lost.

The laptop has 2 drives. One drive is a 750 GB HDD, and the other is a 32GB SSD. I’m not sure how windows is currently installed, and windows only shows the HDD as visible.

The openSUSE installer tells me that my system is Intel Matrix Storage Manager compatible, and that I have 1 “MD compatible RAID” device [W54S7404 FFS Dev_Cache]. It goes on to explain that I can install openSUSE as a MD partitioned RAID, and gives me the option of Yes or No.

If Yes, the installer says that it cannot read the partitions, and leaves me to create a custom partition. The custom partition tells me that the HDD is /dev/sda and the SSD is /dev/sdb.

If No, the suggested partitioning (no separate home partition) is…

  • Create boot volume /dev/mapper/isw_bggegdbaff_Dev_Cache_part1 (156.88 MB) with ext4
  • Create swap volume /dev/mapper/isw_bggegdbaff_Dev_Cache_part2 (2.01 GB)
  • Create root volume /dev/mapper/isw_bggegdbaff_Dev_Cache_part3 (19.65 GB) with ext4
  • Set mount point of /dev/mapper/isw_gcajjdgch_W54S7404_part2 to /windows/C
  • Set mount point of /dev/mapper/isw_gcajjdgch_W54S7404_part3 to /windows/D
    And this seems to me like openSUSE is taking the SSD for itself.

Does anyone have any clue how to get this install to work? I think ideally openSUSE would leave the SSD alone, because that might be the windows boot drive (and we know Windows needs the speed boost). I’m beyond confused here, and at this point I’m afraid that I’ll kill my windows install if I do anything. If all else fails, I could do a virtual machine install of openSUSE on windows, but I’d prefer to dual boot.

2

Honestly, I’d say we absolutely have to see your proper disk info.

The only reliable way is with a Live CD (any distro will do)

su -
fdisk -l

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/su%20-%20fdisk.mpeg

3

Because of timing issues and size differences I don’t see how RAID would work on your described setup. More info is needed.

Some makers have been shipping with FAKE RAID on even with a single disk. I have no clue why… Maybe it is best to simply turn off the FAKE RAID in the BIOS if you can.

4

On 2012-07-28 15:46, gogalthorp wrote:
>
> Because of timing issues and size differences I don’t see how RAID would
> work on your described setup. More info is needed.

There is an asymmetric raid method in which the small SSD acts as a cache of the bigger hard
disk. I don’t remember the exact name.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

5

Here’s the requested disk info:

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9dc27b2f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 80324 40131 de Dell Utility
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 81920 25767935 12843008 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 25767936 1465141247 719686656 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0 GB, 32017047552 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3892 cylinders, total 62533296 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9dc27b07

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 16775167 8386560 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive

6

I’m not sure… No experience with this kind of mess.
I can tell you the boot partition is sda2 of the HDD

7

Well, I’ve tried just about everything I can think of with this current hard drive/BIOS config, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s flat out not possible at this time.

I’ve gotten as far as having an extended partition created on the hdd through fdisk, but the installers for openSUSE, Fedora, and Ubuntu still fail to detect a correct hard drive set up. openSUSE’s installer does seem to do the best (Fedora and Ubuntu detect absolutely nothing), but the extended partition I created was not visible.

Even the Ubuntu Windows Wubi installer fails to perform a correct install, saying that it failed to detect a /root file system once installed.

My only remaining idea is to change around some BIOS settings. Basically, completely disable the Intel-Raid system that is in place and reconfigure either one or both drives as AHCI configured. I’m almost certain that this will require a new Windows install as well, so I’m holding off until class starts and I can get a free copy through school again. I’ll try to post my results once I try this.

8

If you can get a copy of windows, good.
Format everything away and re-partition with Parted Magic’s Gparted

Personally I’d plan to use the SSD for Linux /
Set a NTFS partition on your new sda1… and so on,
Do you need a complete detailed list of what to do…?

9

I’m pretty sure that I could figure out how to use gparted here, but it never hurts to have a little help. If you’ve got a good link with instructions, then I’ll definitely take it.

10

http://forums.opensuse.org/content/26-install-opensuse-win7-guide.html

11

For your information, I have a quite similar problem on a TOSHIBA Satellite U840 on which I would like to set up a dual boot Windows 7 / Suse Linux 12.2

Here is a detailed account of what I found:

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01e22e81

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     3074047     1536000   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2         3074048   946800639   471863296    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       946802688   976762879    14980096   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0 GB, 32017047552 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3892 cylinders, total 62533296 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa1c391df

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048    23521279    11759616   84  OS/2 hidden C: drive

Disk /dev/sdc: 8004 MB, 8004304896 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7633 cylinders, total 15633408 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x44e5d832

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *          64     9119743     4559840   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS

(sdc is the openSUSE-12.2-DVD-x86_64.iso installation disk on a USB key)

Now what happens when I start the installation process:

  • Language : English [if I select another language at this point, the computer appears to download a translation of the license agreement]; Keyboard layout : French.</li>

  •   You are running on the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager compatible platform.

  Following MD compatible RAID devices were detected:
  82AT5921V3UGUNV4 SSDSpace cache_vol
  If they are clean devices or contain partitions the you can choose to use
  MD partitionable RAID sysbsystem to handle them. In case of clean device you
  will be able to install system on it and boot from such RAID.
  Do you want MD Partitionable RAID subsystem to manage those partitions?

    – YES

  •  The partition on disk /dev/sda is not readable by
  the partitioning tool parted, which is used to change the
  partition table.

  You can use the partitions on disk /dev/sda as they are.
  You can format them and assign mount points to them, but you
  cannot add, edit, resize, or remove partitions from that
  disk with this tool.

    –OK

  •  The partition on disk /dev/sdb is not readable by
  the partitioning tool parted, which is used to change the
  partition table.

  You can use the partitions on disk /dev/sda as they are.
  You can format them and assign mount points to them, but you
  cannot add, edit, resize, or remove partitions from that
  disk with this tool.

    – OK

  • New Installation ; Use Automatic Configuration.

  • Region : Europe ; Time Zone : France ; Hardware clock set to UTC

  • KDE desktop

  • Partitioning: no options ; Create Partition Setup
    Select disk 1 (495GB)

      **ERROR**
  Operation not permitted on disk /dev/sda !

  The partitioning on your disk /dev/sda is either not readable or not
  supported by the partitioning tool parted used to change the partition
  table.

  You can use the partitions on disk /dev/sda as they are or
  format them and assign mount points, but you cannot add, edit,
  resize, or remove partitions from that disk here.

  You initialize the disk partition table to a sane state in the Expert
  Partitioner by selecting "Expert" -&gt; "Create New Partition Table",
  but this will destroy all data on all partitions of this disk.

– ABORT

In Windows, I can shrink sda2 to less than half and create a new partition, but the installation process does not see this (logical) partition.

I have made the recommanded recovery media in Windows, so I feel rather safe, but I am greatly in doubt about how to proceed.

12

Get a copy of Parted Magic
Boot it
Can you see the logical partition you created in Windows. But do you actually mean you created an Extended Partition with one logical inside it?
This is fine, but you can and should create 3 logical partitions in the extended space.
Like:
swap = 2 x RAM
then a 20GB ext4 which will be for root (/)
and whatever remains for home (/home) also ext4

Once you have those formatted in place
Try openSUSE again and use the custom partitioner
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3e0lLG3OdqEZ05BQnN2YVdXSlE
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3e0lLG3OdqEZ1REMzQtVHd2ekk

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107564133608385811033/posts

13

Sorry to say that Parted Magic failed.
I used Windows diskmgmt.msc to create an empty space.
fsdisk reports


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01e22e81

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     3074047     1536000   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2         3074048   475760639   236343296    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       475760640   946802687   235521024    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4       946802688   976762879    14980096   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS

Reboot with PartedMagic (pmagic_2012_09_12_x86_64).
Parted Magic boot process hangs for several minutes at line
Starting LVM…
eventually boots with failsafe settings
GParted scans disk for some 7 hours, and then shows alert box

Libparted Bug Found!
Could not stat device /dev/md/82AT5921V3UGUNV4 - No such file or directory

That’q the main disk. Retry to no avail; on Cancel , same message successively with devices
/dev/md/SSDSpace
/dev/md/cache_vol
/dev/mapper/isw: untested metadata version 1.3.00 found on /dev/sbd
/dev/mapper/isw: untested metadata version 1.3.00 found on /dev/sba
Then

Libparted Bug Found!
Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sdd

sdd is the USB volume that PartedMagic is on. On Ignore, GParted shows a structure of the disk. Before going any further


root@PartedMagic:~# ls -l /dev/md
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   8 sep 19 13:21 imsm0 -> ../md127
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   8 sep 19 12:54 imsm1 -> ../md126
root@PartedMagic:~# ls -l /dev/md12*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 126 Sep 19 12:54 /dev/md126
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 126 Sep 19 13:21 /dev/md127
root@PartedMagic:~# ls -l /dev/mapper
total 0
crw-------  1  root   root 10, 236 Sep 19 12:54 control

I set up the partition scheme:
1 new logical partition in /dev/sda3 8GB linux-swap
1 new partition in /dev/sda3 29.30 GiB ext4
1 new partition in /dev/sda3 187.31 GiB ext4
On “Apply pending operations”

An error occured while applying the operations.
See the details for more information

Details show that failure occured while creating new linux-swap filesystem on the first new partition.

On OK, Gparted goes for a looong scanning of all devices. It’s been at it all night long and I do not think it will ever go out of it. It now reports the new partition scheme, and fdisk -l (on a terminal while Gparted roams) reports


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01e22e81

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     3074047     1536000   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2         3074048   475760639   236343296    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       475760640   946802687   235521024    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4       946802688   976762879    14980096   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5       475762688   492539903    8388608   82  Linux swap
14

I think you might have some software RAID employed there. Do you know?

You may be forced to think again.

  1. Wipe and remove RAID, reinstall everything
  2. Add another HD
15

For all I know, it is indeed the case. There is no indication of RAID in the BIOS setup interface, but Windows uses a RAID-like scheme with the 32GiB SSD disk that fdisk lists as /dev/sdb to speed operation.

I am new to Windows, I only have the Windows-generated backup, and I am wary that this backup would not rebuild the system if the disk setup is changed. So, indeed, I am thinking.

16

I don’t think I have kept any pre-installed versions of windows over the last few years. They are just useless. I get all my customers to purchase a DVD, or in some cases we can re-install with the key off the machine, but of course I have all the install media to hand.

And I think there might be some black magic to clear out the RAID, not too sure.

17

On 2012-09-20 10:56, caf4926 wrote:
>
> I think you might have some software RAID employed there. Do you know?
>
> You may be forced to think again.
> 1. Wipe and remove RAID, reinstall everything
> 2. Add another HD
>

As I mentioned several messages back, it is supposed to be a small ssd disk acting as cache of the
big hard disk. It is managed as a special kind of raid. I’m not aware if this is supposed to work in
Linux at all.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

18

On 2012-09-20 19:26, caf4926 wrote:
> And I think there might be some black magic to clear out the RAID, not
> too sure.

If that RAID is what I think, it should not be cleared but used as is. It is a selling point of that
machine.


http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Toshiba-Satellite-U840W-21-9-Ultrabook.78303.0.html

+++··························
The U840W will offer a choice as far as storage devices go: the buyer can pick a combo HDD+SSD cache
or opt for a pure SSD option. Most likely the HDD-SSD combo drive will come in at a better price
point, but the pure SSD option will likely offer the best performance. Since there is no integrated
optical drive, movies need to be available as files and will be, in most cases, saved to the device
itself. Choosing the 128 GB version might lead to a filled-up hard drive in a fairly short amount of
time. For this reason, potential buyers should consider their storage capacity demands before making
a decision.

…

System Performance

As we mentioned earlier, Toshiba is going to offer the Satellite U840W in different hard drive
configurations. Our pre-production system features a combination of a conventional disk drive and a
small flash drive for cache purposes
··························+±

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

19

Right. The point is, can we have a dual boot with this system?

I posted on this thread because the first part of it exposed an issue which seemed to me to be quite similar. If a class of machines is not suitable for dual boot, shouldn’t we mention it, for the benefit of would-be buyers?

20

On 2012-09-21 09:06, polbrian wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2488914 Wrote:

>> If that RAID is what I think, it should not be cleared but used as is.
>> It is a selling point of that machine.
>>
>
> Right. The point is, can we have a dual boot with this system?
>
> I posted on this thread because the first part of it exposed an issue
> which seemed to me to be quite similar. If a class of machines is not
> suitable for dual boot, shouldn’t we mention it, for the benefit of
> would-be buyers?

We simply do not know if it is possible to boot and/or use that kind of setup in Linux. I suggest
you ask in the factory mail list.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))