Here's a quickie FAQ, it's very incomplete, but I wanted to get some
feedback on what I've got right now. Thanks,
Greg
Linux-RAID FAQ
Gregory Leblanc
gleblanc (at) cu-portland.edu
Revision History
Revision v0.01 31 July 2000 Revised by: gml
Initial draft of this FAQ.
This is a FAQ for the Linux-RAID mailing list, hosted on
vger.rutgers.edu. It's intended as a supplement to the existing
Linux-RAID HOWTO, to cover questions that keep occurring on the mailing
list. PLEASE read this document before your post to the list.
_________________________________________________________________
1. General
1.1. Where can I find archives for the linux-raid mailing list?
2. Kernel
2.1. I'm running the DooDad Linux Distribution. Do I need to
patch my kernel to make RAID work?
2.2. How can I tell if I need to patch my kernel?
2.3. Where can I get the latest RAID patches for my kernel?
2.4. How do I apply the patch to a kernel that I just downloaded
from ftp.kernel.org?
1. General
1.1. Where can I find archives for the linux-raid mailing list?
My favorite archives are at Geocrawler.
Other archives are available at
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-raid&r=1&w=2
Another archive site is
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-raid@vger.rutgers.edu/.
2. Kernel
2.1. I'm running the DooDad Linux Distribution. Do I need to patch my
kernel to make RAID work?
Well, the short answer is, it depends. Distributions that are keeping
up to date have the RAID patches included in their kernels. The kernel
that RedHat distributes, as do some others. If you download a 2.2.x
kernel from ftp.kernel.org, then you will need to patch your kernel.
2.2. How can I tell if I need to patch my kernel?
The easiest way is to check what's in /proc/mdstat. Here's a sample
from a 2.2.x kernel, with the RAID patches applied.
[gleblanc@grego1 gleblanc]$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] [translucent]
read_ahead not set
unused devices: <none>
[gleblanc@grego1 gleblanc]$
If the contents of /proc/mdstat looks like the above, then you don't
need to patch your kernel.
I'll get a copy of something from an UN-patched 2.2.x kernel and put
it here shortly. If your /proc/mdstat looks like this one, then you
need to patch your kernel.
2.3. Where can I get the latest RAID patches for my kernel?
The patches for the 2.2.x kernels up to, and including, 2.2.13 are
available from ftp.kernel.org. Use the kernel patch that most closely
matches your kernel revision. For example, the 2.2.11 patch can also
be used on 2.2.12 and 2.2.13.
The patches for 2.2.14 and later kernels are at
http://people.redhat.com/mingo/raid-patches/. Use the right patch for
your kernel, these patches haven't worked on other kernel revisions
yet.
2.4. How do I apply the patch to a kernel that I just downloaded from
ftp.kernel.org?
Put the downloaded kernel in /usr/src. Change to this directory, and
move any directory called linux to something else. Then, type tar
-Ixvf kernel-2.2.16.tar.bz2, replacing kernel-2.2.16.tar.bz2 with your
kernel. Then cd to /usr/src/linux, and run patch -p1 < raid-2.2.16-A0.
Then compile the kernel as usual.
