Bug report: installer messed up mdadm.conf
Hi,
I'm writing you to report you what i noticed during an install
of Debian GNU/Linux testing _Lenny_ - Official Snapshot i386 kde-CD Binary-1 20080314-21:55
some weeks ago.
I'm not opening a bug record for now as this report contains
only what i remember but i'm not able to reproduce the problem and give
more accurate info.
THE PROBLEM
Install was run on an x86 pc previously containing a set of
linux software raid disks (md0 raid1, md1 raid5).
During the partioning step of the install i choose
manual partitioning.
The old raid sets where correctly detected and shown in the list.
I deleted the old raid sets and recreated them
changing disk order, number
of raid devices and spare devices.
Everything looked fine and after finishing the install
i rebooted the pc.
The booting process stopped at some point complaining
about a missing root device.
THE DIAGNOSYS
I used a live cd to inspect the installed system
after a long resync of the raid sets
and found that the mdadm.conf file (in /etc and probably in the initrd)
created during the install contained the definitions of the old (deleted)
raid sets (on top) and also of the new ones.
I retried the install this time inspecting the mdadm.conf
file after every of the relevant steps and in fact it contained
the old and new raid sets.
I recreated it before the end of the install
with mdadm --detail --scan > /etc/mdadm.conf
copied it to new install
chrooted into it and updated the initrd with
update-initramfs and at the reboot everythingh
was ok.
THE SOLUTION (just a proposal)
Rewrite /etc/mdadm.conf after
the partitining step of the installer
rather than append to it.
Best regards.
Ciao,
Tito
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