Partitioning two SSD for software mirror with EFI

Let_Me_Be · March 26, 2013, 4:55pm

I’m really struggling with the opensuse 12.3 installation.

Whatever partition scheme I choose, I always get the bootloader won’t install error in the installation overview.

I have two SSD disks, which I want to put into a mirror and I have an UEFI motherboard.

I have already discovered that the EFI grub partition can’t be mirrored, but even if I put it outside of the mirror, it’s still not good enough.

I have tried the following setup:

ssd1

FAT EFI (256MB)
1/2 mirror raid swap (4GB)
1/2 mirror raid LVM (~50GB)

**ssd2
**

empty space (256MB)
2/2 mirror raid swap (4GB)
2/2 mirror raid LVM (~50GB)

**LVM
**

root partition (~25GB)
home parititon (~25GB)

What is the correct layout?
Also what block size should I choose for the raid on top of the SSDs?

arvidjaar · March 26, 2013, 6:14pm

You probably hit https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=808017

Let_Me_Be · March 26, 2013, 6:29pm

So, does that mean that I can’t install openSuSe on this machine?

malcolmlewis · March 26, 2013, 6:50pm

On Tue 26 Mar 2013 05:36:02 PM CDT, Let Me Be wrote:

So, does that mean that I can’t install openSuSe on this machine?

Hi
Are you using encryption?

It should work, gpt partitions?

sda1 - ef00 256MB /boot/efi
sda2 - swap 4GB swap RAID0
sda3 - RAID1 LVM

sdb1 - ef00 256MB <not mounted> (use dd to back it up )
sdb2 - swap 4GB swap RAID0
sdb3 - RAID1 LVM

You probably only need 15GB for / and the rest for /home

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 3:57, 3 users, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.05
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Ironlake Mobile

Let_Me_Be · March 26, 2013, 6:58pm

Tried this layout, it won’t work (the installer will refuse to continue, claiming that the layout is incompatible).

Not using encryption.

malcolmlewis · March 26, 2013, 7:11pm

On Tue 26 Mar 2013 06:06:03 PM CDT, Let Me Be wrote:

malcolmlewis;2541315 Wrote:
> Hi
> Are you using encryption?
>
> It should work, gpt partitions?
>
> sda1 - ef00 256MB /boot/efi
> sda2 - swap 4GB swap RAID0
> sda3 - RAID1 LVM
>
> sdb1 - ef00 256MB <not mounted> (use dd to back it up )
> sdb2 - swap 4GB swap RAID0
> sdb3 - RAID1 LVM
>
> You probably only need 15GB for / and the rest for /home

Tried this layout, it won’t work (the installer will refuse to
continue, claiming that the layout is incompatible).

Not using encryption.

Hi
What if you use standard RAID for the third partition?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 4:23, 3 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Ironlake Mobile

Let_Me_Be · March 26, 2013, 7:58pm

You mean RAID without the LVM on top?

malcolmlewis · March 26, 2013, 8:23pm

On Tue 26 Mar 2013 07:06:03 PM CDT, Let Me Be wrote:

malcolmlewis;2541332 Wrote:
> Hi
> What if you use standard RAID for the third partition?

You mean RAID without the LVM on top?

Hi
Yes, just one for / and I wouldn’t worry about a /home, even just to
see if that works, you can always hit the back button before continuing
the install process.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 5:32, 3 users, load average: 0.12, 0.04, 0.05
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Ironlake Mobile

Let_Me_Be · March 26, 2013, 8:39pm

Yeah, I will try that. No problem going through the install process, this is a machine with SSD disks on a 1Gbit network connected directly to 50Gbit backbone. The network install is pretty snappy

Let_Me_Be · March 27, 2013, 11:39am

OK, so if I have the EFI partition outside of the RAID and another plain /boot partition outside of the LVM, the system works. Problem is that I now have a redundancy issue. If I remove the /dev/sda disk (the one with the EFI partition) I end up with an unbootable system. Simple clone using dd isn’t enough.

malcolmlewis · March 27, 2013, 12:34pm

On Wed 27 Mar 2013 10:46:01 AM CDT, Let Me Be wrote:

Let_Me_Be;2541377 Wrote:
> Yeah, I will try that. No problem going through the install process,
> this is a machine with SSD disks on a 1Gbit network connected directly
> to 50Gbit backbone. The network install is pretty snappy

OK, so if I have the EFI partition outside of the RAID and another
plain /boot partition outside of the LVM, the system works. Problem is
that I now have a redundancy issue. If I remove the /dev/sda disk (the
one with the EFI partition) I end up with an unbootable system. Simple
clone using dd isn’t enough.

Hi
You need to add the other disk efi files via the efibootmgr command
into the NVRAM.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 21:44, 3 users, load average: 0.01, 0.04, 0.05
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Ironlake Mobile

Let_Me_Be · March 27, 2013, 12:54pm

Right you are.

This is the full process:

create a layout where you have a non-raid, non-lvm /boot/efi
create a /boot that is non-lvm (can be raid)
create the rest
let the install do it’s work
clone the /boot/efi using dd
add an efi record for the clone “efibootmgr -c -g -d /dev/sdb -p 1 -L “opensuse” -l ‘\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi’”
using “efibootmgr --bootorder” change the boot order so that the two opensuse records are next to each other

malcolmlewis · March 27, 2013, 1:43pm

On Wed 27 Mar 2013 11:56:01 AM CDT, Let Me Be wrote:

malcolmlewis;2541638 Wrote:
> Hi
> You need to add the other disk efi files via the efibootmgr command
> into the NVRAM.

Right you are.

This is the full process:

create a layout where you have a non-raid, non-lvm /boot/efi

create a /boot that is non-lvm (can be raid)

create the rest

let the install do it’s work

clone the /boot/efi using dd

add an efi record for the clone “efibootmgr -c -g -d /dev/sdb -p 1
-L “opensuse” -l ‘\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi’”

using “efibootmgr --bootorder” change the boot order so that the
two opensuse records are next to each other

Hi
Sounds like you have it all sorted

The other application I recommend is a full efi shell (if you system
doesn’t have a built in shell), you can grab the binary from the
sourceforge site;
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=EDK2

Copy it onto a USB device and you can boot from it there, else add into
the efi system and add so it’s a boot option.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.1-desktop
up 22:48, 3 users, load average: 0.01, 0.05, 0.05
CPU Intel® i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | GPU Intel® Ironlake Mobile