I'm new to Linux and don't know much about it. But what I'm wanting to do is install XBMCbuntu AND raid my internal HDD's installed on that machine at the same time. I am so confused during the install process I cant figure out how to install WITH raid but I can install onto 1 HDD with ease. If i try to add HDD's it asks me where do i want them mounted? i don't understand? does it want to know where in the file process such as / or /home ? if so how can i raid 4 HDD's at same location it tells me i cant do at same location. again this is IF it is even possible. Any help would be MUCH appreciated :-) thanks again
In the drive setup you should be able to format all the drives as 'software raid'. This will then give you an option to create a new raid drive out of the 4 software raid drives (Prob Raid5).
You will then be left with 1 drive totalling the amount of space on the Raid. You can then create your partitions as normal on that raid drive including /boot, /, /home, etc...
Hope this helps.
P.s. this is assuming you don't mind losing any data on those drives. Also you would probably need to go into the manual setup on the drives and not use any automated drive setup.
You would probably not want a /home partition on a htpc though. I am only going of my experiences with the anaconda\terminal raid setup in fedora\centos setups so not sure if this would apply to yourself.
I understand what you are recommending (I think). But this is where I am getting lost.
I am a complete noob when it comes to Linux/Ubuntu but I have been using XBMC for quite a while and love it.
If i leave it as is i get a "No root file system is defined." message so i hit new partition table on /sda and put starting location as / and that fixes the issue. But now I'm at the point where I feel like it is not going to use the other 2 HDD"s and when I hit "Add.." on one of those HDD"s i get this screen
and now this is where I am COMPLETELY lost. any help for a local idiot is MUCH appreciated.
You need to create a 'software raid' partition on each drive. Then create your raid out of the drives. This will then give you another drive to create your root partition on. Prepping each drive as a software raid partition first is the key...
Ok so i need to create a "software raid" partition on each drive. But how do I do that? what options do i chose? i searched for software raid and got WAY to many different types of hits to understand what your saying. Have any links to an idiots guide? yeah cause thats me when it comes to linux/ubuntu
Ah,
I have just prepped an XBMCbuntu VM and you are correct, there is no Software Raid option in the 'Use as' selection box for the partition.
If you really want to have this raided (which is always recommended) then i would advise that you boot into a live media so you can get access to a console to do this.
Here is a link for mdadm (the software raid system) so you can set it up:
http://zackreed.me/articles/38-software-...with-mdadm
http://sebby.cc/?p=340
The second one seems better but you don't have to bother with the 'Use your raid' sections as the XBMCbuntu installer is going to do that.
it not as scary as it looks! Just remember, you can play around with this as much as you want as you have no data to lose.
YES YES YES. that is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you SOOO MUCH you are a life saver. I REFUSE to not raid (data is to precious) im glad you see what i was talking about. I was reading into it and it looks like with the alternative ubuntu you can install with raid but not on the live version. So I think it would be best if Team XBMC would create a version of XBMCbuntu with OUT live so that those of us that wish to install with raid (which should be most) can do so easily. Thanks so much and best of times to you TheNom
No problem, Glad i could help
(2012-08-19, 13:19)TheNom Wrote: [ -> ]Ah,
I have just prepped an XBMCbuntu VM and you are correct, there is no Software Raid option in the 'Use as' selection box for the partition.
If you really want to have this raided (which is always recommended) then i would advise that you boot into a live media so you can get access to a console to do this.
Here is a link for mdadm (the software raid system) so you can set it up:
http://zackreed.me/articles/38-software-...with-mdadm
http://sebby.cc/?p=340
The second one seems better but you don't have to bother with the 'Use your raid' sections as the XBMCbuntu installer is going to do that.
it not as scary as it looks! Just remember, you can play around with this as much as you want as you have no data to lose.
Hi, silly question, but with the raid setup, would I create the raid array on the live disk first and then select the array during the installation of XBMCbuntu, or would I need to have install XBMCbuntu installed first and then manually copy over files onto the raid array? Thanks!
You should be able to just create the array of HDD's from the live disk and then when you boot of Ubuntu, the mdadm drivers already on the disk should recognise the metadata on the disks and offer you the same array.
It's just like prepping a partition on a drive with fdisk with one OS live disk and using another OS disk to install onto it.