[Bug 778520] Re: install on degraded raid1 does not boot, drops to initramfs shell

[Clint Byrum]

Excerpts from piwacet's message of Thu Sep 29 00:10:40 UTC 2011:
> OK figured it out.
> 
> If I understand this right, this bug remains fixed in Oneiric.
> 
> I tested this in a KVM machine, which shows early-boot console output
> that virtualbox does not.  When I remove a drive in KVM, I'm given a
> choice to boot the degraded raid, or drop to a shell.  After a timeout,
> it automatically drops to the shell; if I choose 'y' before the timeout,
> it boots the degraded raid.
> 
> The problem with virtualbox is that it does not show this early console
> output.  But the process proceeds correctly: if in virtualbox I remove a
> drive, boot, and wait a bit, and then blindly press 'y' and enter at the
> still-blank screen, it boots to the degraded raid.  If I press enter
> only (selecting the default to drop to a shell), then 'reboot', then
> enter, it reboots.  None if this is visible on the screen, that's the
> only problem.  If I do boot to the degraded raid, the console output
> becomes visible as it nears the end of the boot process.
> 
> So the problem I was experiencing has nothing to do with this bug.  It
> seems to be simply virtualbox not displaying console output until very
> late in a successful boot process.  Don't know why it does this.
> 
> So apologies for the noise, but hopefully this can be helpful if someone
> else runs into this problem in a virtualbox VM.
> 

piwacet, thanks for the detailed testing and confirmation that the fix has
indeed worked. I would suggest opening a bug with Virtualbox about this
problem. Its entirely possible that our kernel or their virtualization
env is doing something terribly wrong early in the boot... its pretty
important that initramfs be visible to users.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to mdadm in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/778520

Title:
  install on degraded raid1 does not boot, drops to initramfs shell

Status in “initramfs-tools” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “mdadm” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “initramfs-tools” source package in Natty:
  Invalid
Status in “mdadm” source package in Natty:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  Yesterday I did a fresh install of Natty amd64. I used the PXE
  installer so all packages are up to date right after installation.

  I partitioned the disk to have two software raid1 devices. One for swap, one for / with xfs.
  Installation completed successfully, grub was installed to MBR.

  The system has a >95% failure rate in booting.
  At first it would hang on a purple screen. I blindly typed "reboot" at this screen, which worked. So I figured out that it would boot to a shell but not show it.
  Then, I added "nosplash" to the kernel command line and removed "quiet".

  This revealed that the system drops into a BusyBox shell labled "initramfs" when booting fails.
  Unfortunately, I cannot tell whether it shows any errors on screen because the BusyBox shell resets the screen buffer, CTRL+PageUp does not work.

  Please help me how to figure out what is wrong. Either tell me which log file I can search for the very first booting messages OR release a package update which fixes the screen-clearing of the initramfs shell.
  If you do that I will take the effort of doing the 10-20 boot attempts to get to the point where I can update the packages...
  If the initramfs-boot-process is logged anywhere I can check the log files without getting the system to boot through a bootable USB stick...

  ==== SRU Justification ====

  IMPACT: Users who install on a degraded RAID1 or who lose a disk drive
  will be unable to boot.

  TEST CASE:

  1. Install a natty system with root on a software RAID1
  2. After booting once, shutdown
  3. remove one disk entirely
  4. boot the system, it may drop to initramfs, or it may boot degraded
  5. reboot, this time it should reliably drop to initramfs
  6. poweroff and add the disk in again, it should now boot degraded
  7. install updated mdadm
  8. repeat steps 2-5 , it should pass and NOT drop to initramfs

  REGRESSION POTENTIAL: The fix that has been uploaded to oneiric
  already takes care to err on the side of responding to degraded
  arrays. Still mdadm is very sensitive and so probably needs a bit of
  extra testing to ensure that it works properly, including passing the
  usual RAID1 iso install tests (with the additional step of installing
  the mdadm package from proposed right after install)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/778520/+subscriptions