What exactly does dmraid -x do?
by Ranyel from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5RVKP)
The post name speaks for itself, but there are some points to clarify.
I have two hard drives in my computer at the moment, and I want to install MX 19 on the second drive (/dev/sdb). I'm using a live USB version of MX, in case anyone's wondering. Now, the target drive /dev/sdb appears to be a RAID device. This is the output of lsblk -f:
Code:fd0
loop0 squashfs 0 100% /live/linux
sda
sda1 ext4 rootMX18.1 0f8d47b8-4568-4f8d-a9d3-d74868bf2541
sda2 swap 74240a4d-fa24-405a-b0cc-04628b8b6100 [SWAP]
sda3 ext4 root-MX19 6c7469a4-2bfa-4fc9-8912-483e939657b7
sda4 ext4 boss2-data adaf34e1-23b0-4ece-9c19-86da3bddb1c2
sdb ddf_raid_member Dell \x10
sdb1 ext4 root-bunsenlabs3 d2788382-4a93-4a8e-a711-3795a9372144
sdb2 swap 280968b4-4ad9-4904-8167-a708bb9a4edf
sdb3 ddf_raid_member Dell \x10
md126
md126p1 ext4 root-bunsenlabs3 d2788382-4a93-4a8e-a711-3795a9372144
md126p2 swap 280968b4-4ad9-4904-8167-a708bb9a4edf [SWAP]
md126p3
sdc
sdc1 ext4 Live-usb eae69e13-7630-4ab1-9cbd-4d40ee9a2d40 10.7G 25% /live/boot-dev
sdc2 vfat LIVE-UEFI EA11-8EFAAs you can see, I already have another distro and a swap partition on that drive, and there's plenty of space for a new partition. However, since I'm dealing with a RAID device, I can't make a new partition. When I try, gparted throws this error:
Code:/dev/sdb is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!While the new sdb3 partition does appear, it is unusable due to the prior error. gparted registers it as a filesystem of "unknown" type. After doing some research, I've found that my problem is most likely due to this being a RAID drive. I did not set this up as a RAID drive, nor am I interested in keeping it as such. All I want to do is finish this install.
Here's where I'm stuck, though: I have zero knowledge of how RAID works and how to work with it. Is RAID just a wrapper for the existing partitions? That's the sense I get. If that's the case, can I just delete the RAID wrapper without potential damage to the partitions? I didn't want to try dmraid -x or anything like that without making sure, since I don't want to lose the partitions on this drive.
By the way, and in case anyone's wondering, in my research I also discovered some suggestions to use mdadm instead of dmraid. Yes, I tried it. This was the result:
Code:$ sudo mdadm --stop /dev/md126
mdadm: Cannot get exclusive access to /dev/md126:Perhaps a running process, mounted filesystem or active volume group?When I tried sudo dmraid -r, I found that it saw the problem drive:
Code:/dev/sdb: ddf1, ".ddf1_disks", GROUP, ok, 975699968 sectors, data@ 0So I know that works.
Thus, the question: What exactly do I need to get rid of the RAID status and format the drive normally? dmraid -x, or something else? And RAID isn't just a wrapper, what would be the best course of action?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I have two hard drives in my computer at the moment, and I want to install MX 19 on the second drive (/dev/sdb). I'm using a live USB version of MX, in case anyone's wondering. Now, the target drive /dev/sdb appears to be a RAID device. This is the output of lsblk -f:
Code:fd0
loop0 squashfs 0 100% /live/linux
sda
sda1 ext4 rootMX18.1 0f8d47b8-4568-4f8d-a9d3-d74868bf2541
sda2 swap 74240a4d-fa24-405a-b0cc-04628b8b6100 [SWAP]
sda3 ext4 root-MX19 6c7469a4-2bfa-4fc9-8912-483e939657b7
sda4 ext4 boss2-data adaf34e1-23b0-4ece-9c19-86da3bddb1c2
sdb ddf_raid_member Dell \x10
sdb1 ext4 root-bunsenlabs3 d2788382-4a93-4a8e-a711-3795a9372144
sdb2 swap 280968b4-4ad9-4904-8167-a708bb9a4edf
sdb3 ddf_raid_member Dell \x10
md126
md126p1 ext4 root-bunsenlabs3 d2788382-4a93-4a8e-a711-3795a9372144
md126p2 swap 280968b4-4ad9-4904-8167-a708bb9a4edf [SWAP]
md126p3
sdc
sdc1 ext4 Live-usb eae69e13-7630-4ab1-9cbd-4d40ee9a2d40 10.7G 25% /live/boot-dev
sdc2 vfat LIVE-UEFI EA11-8EFAAs you can see, I already have another distro and a swap partition on that drive, and there's plenty of space for a new partition. However, since I'm dealing with a RAID device, I can't make a new partition. When I try, gparted throws this error:
Code:/dev/sdb is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!While the new sdb3 partition does appear, it is unusable due to the prior error. gparted registers it as a filesystem of "unknown" type. After doing some research, I've found that my problem is most likely due to this being a RAID drive. I did not set this up as a RAID drive, nor am I interested in keeping it as such. All I want to do is finish this install.
Here's where I'm stuck, though: I have zero knowledge of how RAID works and how to work with it. Is RAID just a wrapper for the existing partitions? That's the sense I get. If that's the case, can I just delete the RAID wrapper without potential damage to the partitions? I didn't want to try dmraid -x or anything like that without making sure, since I don't want to lose the partitions on this drive.
By the way, and in case anyone's wondering, in my research I also discovered some suggestions to use mdadm instead of dmraid. Yes, I tried it. This was the result:
Code:$ sudo mdadm --stop /dev/md126
mdadm: Cannot get exclusive access to /dev/md126:Perhaps a running process, mounted filesystem or active volume group?When I tried sudo dmraid -r, I found that it saw the problem drive:
Code:/dev/sdb: ddf1, ".ddf1_disks", GROUP, ok, 975699968 sectors, data@ 0So I know that works.
Thus, the question: What exactly do I need to get rid of the RAID status and format the drive normally? dmraid -x, or something else? And RAID isn't just a wrapper, what would be the best course of action?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.