[SOLVED] Install Kubuntu on MD RAID1 with LUKS

[drAt50]

I installed Kubuntu on MD RAID1 with LUKS. Steps:


1) make customized image of Kubuntu LiveCD kubuntu-24.04-desktop-amd64.iso (to include mdadm, and remove dmraid)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization

Only customization commands needed:
sudo apt purge dmraid
sudo apt install mdadm

I hope you will manage to make the customized CD: I suceeded in second try.

2) Very important to understand - we do not make md raid directly from those two disks.
Both disks need to have first partition which is EFI created, and that partition is not part of RAID.
And then the second partition only, is to be included in RAID. Or "made into RAID area". Not the whole disks.
I used this link with information here to help me with the actions and understanding:
https://alexskra.com/blog/ubuntu-20-...aid1-and-uefi/

There are two essential steps. (you can't directly install with Kubuntu LiveCD, you need to help with Ubuntu Server LiveCD)

In step one you can use Ubuntu Server 24.04 LiveCD ubuntu-24.04-live-server-amd64.iso to very simple install Ubuntu-Server in one / partition under RAID, with no encryption, this step is only to create necessary EFI partitions on disks and RAID partitions, to make right partition layout on disk. Not to really install Ubuntu Server. Do not forget to mark EFI partitions on both disks bootable.

When you installed it you don't really have to boot it.

In step two, boot into customised Kubuntu LiveCD which will now recognize disk layout and raid and will offer you installation on /dev/md127 (raid).
Now it's very important to tell the installer to install it in-place of that / partition that was created under RAID. No other way works.
Also check that correct /boot/efi partition was chosen.
Check encrypted button and give the LUKS password.

It should install as Kubuntu in mdraid with LUKS.

PC motherboard does not need to have a fakeraid set. A board with no RAID will also do.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Welcome and thank you for sharing your experience.

[claydoh]

To better aid those who will come across this post, it might be helpful to add some context on what you are doing, maybe the hardware involved, and maybe what or why you can't do this without the extra steps. Things that will help it show up in search engine results

A couple of thoughts that may be useful:

if using the Ubuntu Server installer, one can actually go from the partitioning and actually install it, reboot into the new OS, and then simply install Kubuntu via the kubuntu-desktop meta-package. This would bypass using multiple installers.
(assuming that I am not missing an important aspect or option not found in the server installer)
This would be far simpler.

Also, it should be possible to install mdadm from the Kubuntu live desktop session before running the installer. Though this of course probably involves manually configuring the drives as RAID1. I am unsure if there is a GUI tool for this.
(Again, assuming that I am not missing an important aspect)