Problem with alternate install CD: existing RAID partitions not detected

[Objekt]

I would like to install Kubuntu 9.04 to my system using the Alternate Install CD, since it is capable of recognizing and installing to a so-called "fake" RAID, of the type offered by the Intel ICH9R chipset (as on my motherboard, an Asus P5E3 WS Pro). However, when I get to the part where Kubuntu want to set up partitions on which to install itself, things go all wrong.

Most importantly, the installer doesn't see ANY of the existing partitions. In reality, the RAID-1 contains two 1 TB SATA 2 HDD's, partitioned as follows, going from start to end of disk:

20 GB NTFS boot partition (Windows XP SP3 boot volume)
800 GB NTFS partition (used to store data)
*10 GB Ext-3 / partition for a previous Kubuntu 8.10 64-bit install
*4 GB swap partition that goes with the Kubuntu 8.10 install
*20 GB Ext-3 /home partition, again part of the Kubuntu 8.10 install
100 GB Ext-3 partition (can't remember the mount point, just used for general data storage)

The three marked with a * are logical drives on the same extended partition (if I have my terminology correct), for the maximum total of 4 primary & extended partitions.

I've verified that other Linux environments see it this way. For example, when I use Clonezilla to image my Windows XP boot volume, it sees two SATA drives, each with the 6 partitions listed above. Kubuntu 8.10 has no problem with any of it, except that it sees two hard drives, since I didn't install it on to the RAID 1. I didn't know how at the time.

But the Kubuntu 9.04 alternate CD installer sees only one 1.0 TB RAID, which it claims is unformatted.

That leads to the other problem. The only options I'm presented are to automatically partition, using the entire 1.0 TB "disk" (really a RAID-1 of two 1 TB disks, remember), or to manually partition, in which case it will rewrite the partition table, destroying any existing partitions. This is true even if I elect only to make one or two ext3 partitions, even if I put them at the end of the disk, and they are small enough that they should not overlap with the existing NTFS partitions.

Isn't there some way I can install Kubuntu 9.04 to the RAID, without wiping out the NTFS partitions? I don't care what happens to the ext3 volumes, as I've already backed up everything I needed from the Kubuntu 8.10 install.

Do I need to delete the ext3 partitions for things to work correctly?

[dibl]

Re: Problem with alternate install CD: existing RAID partitions not detected

since it is capable of recognizing and installing to a so-called "fake" RAID, of the type offered by the Intel ICH9R chipset (as on my motherboard, an Asus P5E3 WS Pro).

Are you certain this is true? I thought "fake" RAID was a software RAID --- but I am not an expert. I have never heard of *buntu recognizing and using a RAID chip on the motherboard.

[Objekt]

Re: Problem with alternate install CD: existing RAID partitions not detected

It's a sort of quasi-software RAID, popularly known as a "fake RAID" or more properly as a firmware/driver-based RAID. It uses a standard disk controller chip with special firmware and drivers, which drivers must be included at Windows XP install time. The Intel ICH9R southbridge incorporates such a feature.

When I boot the Kubuntu 9.04 Alternate Install CD, the installer sees only a single 1.0TB device, so it must be playing ball with the "fake" RAID. The problem is that it wants to wipe the partition table and reformat the entire 1.0 TB, but I have NTFS partitions on some of that space that I want to keep. Even if I didn't reformat the entire 1.0 TB, I'm not sure whether I could somehow restore access to the NTFS partitions after the partition table gets rewritten.

[dibl]

Re: Problem with alternate install CD: existing RAID partitions not detected

So, you are selecting "manual partitioning" from the installation procedure? And then it shows no partitions available?

Hmmm - sound like the Ubiquity installer is not as friendly to RAID as the rest of the OS, perhaps.



EDIT: Here's some guidance:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto

[Objekt]

Re: Problem with alternate install CD: existing RAID partitions not detected

So, you are selecting "manual partitioning" from the installation procedure? And then it shows no partitions available?

Hmmm - sound like the Ubiquity installer is not as friendly to RAID as the rest of the OS, perhaps.



EDIT: Here's some guidance:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto

Correct. When I use the 9.04 Alternate install CD, I get as far as choosing a partitioning scheme, but I'm afraid to proceed further because I don't want to wipe out my Windows XP install. The installer (text-mode FWIW) speaks of "rewriting the partition table" but does not show any of my NTFS partitions. That sounds very much as if it would not include the existing NTFS partitions in the new partition table.

NOT installing on the RAID has its own problems. As I relate in my other recent thread, the ICH9R software will see any asymmetry in partitioning between the two drives in the RAID as an error, and will "fix" it by wiping out anything that isn't the same.