/dev/mapper and Anaconda install failures (FC6 x86_64)

[Hadders]

Sean Bruno wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-12-12 at 14:22 +0800, Hadders wrote:
>   
>> Sean Bruno wrote:
>>     
>>> On Tue, 2006-12-12 at 14:02 +0800, Hadders wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Sean Bruno wrote:
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> I've been wrestling with anaconda this evening on my x86_64 machine.  It
>>>>> seems that anaconda (or some other piece of the installer) is
>>>>> forcing /dev/mapper to be created even when I have no RAID devices
>>>>> enabled.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have cleared the 'fake' raid stuff off of my disks from rescue
>>>>> mode(dmraid -E), but with 2 disks installed the installer insists on
>>>>> trying to configure /dev/mapper/mpath0.
>>>>>
>>>>> I see each disk individually if I only have one SATA drive connected at
>>>>> a time.  Which seems odd as heck to me, but I can install FC6 and at
>>>>> least send you folks this email this way.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there a 'nodmraid' option to the installer that I can pass to allow
>>>>> me to see /dev/sda & /dev/sdb instead of the dmraid stuff?  What's even
>>>>> stranger is that there appears to be a way to disable dmraid from the
>>>>> GUI screen when you choose to 'remove all partitions', but the option is
>>>>> greyed out?!?
>>>>>
>>>>> Any guidance would be appreciated.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sean
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>   
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> Does your mainboard have any RAID BIOS's loaded?
>>>> Jump in to the BIOS and have a look at the SATA RAID stuff, DON'T CHANGE 
>>>> IT.
>>>> Please let us know what the setting is.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> I have an Asus K8N-DL mobo that has two RAID controllers on it.  An
>>> Nvidia and a Silicon Image.  I have both RAID controllers disabled at
>>> this time.  Both of the SATA drives were connected to the Nvidia SATA
>>> controller during this round of tests.
>>>
>>> Sean
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> have you ever run the RAID through the BIOS's?
>>
>>     
> Yes.  A long, long, long time ago.  It didn't work under FC4, so I used
> S/W raid.  FC5's support of these 'fake' Raid devices didn't impress me,
> so I stuck with S/W raid.  My intent with FC6 was to do the same thing,
> however numerous attempts to install on more than one disk have failed.
>
> Sean
>
>   
Hmmm, I would say that something thinks you've still got some RAID 
somewhere. Ironically, I'm trying to get my "fake" RAID device working 
with FC5.
I kinda have it working, except that it doesn't want to work with the 
latest kernel! arrrgh.

Anyway, if /dev/mapper is involved then dmraid thinks you have a container.
Possibilities include:
 - The signatures on the disks have not been "cleared", I usually 
badblocks -vw /dev/sda to scrub a disk entirely, though you could just 
dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 to blast the MBR
 - The RAID BIOS on the mainboard, though Disabled, still has a setting 
and wants to get involved.

I assume you're talking about having problems with Software RAID in FC6?

H