Installing on software RAID without CD ROM does not work

[Christopher Chan]

The debian installer supports installing from the network and anywhere 
else it can reach a copy of a repository. I hope they did not mess that 
up too...

BTW, installing root on a raid5 is not supported by any operating system 
afaik.


On Wednesday, May 12, 2010 03:35 PM, Matthias Brennwald wrote:
> Dear all
>
> I believe there is a nasty error in the text-based installer (Ubuntu 10.04). Here's my situation:
> - I have a machine without a CD drive
> - The machine has 5 SATA slots, and I want to combine the 5 drives into a MD RAID array (software RAID level 5)
> - I want to install the system onto the RAID array
>
> According to the documentation, I need the alternate (text based) installer to setup the RAID before installing the system onto the RAID. The standard (graphic) installer does not allow setting up a RAID. I therefore downloaded the alternate installer ISO file and used this with the "Make startup disk" utility (in the "Administration" menu) to make a bootable disk (I used an external USB hard drive). I did this on an existing Ubuntu install on a machine I already had. I then attached the external USB drive to the machine where I wanted to install Ubuntu on the RAID and booted up. The installeer came up fine and I started the installation process. The process halted when it could not find a CD drive, and asked me to manually select the missing CD ROM drivers. I could not get past this point because the installer insisted in having a CD drive. The only solution was to borrowed an external USB CD drive, burn the ISO to a CD and use this instead the USB harddisk to install Ubun
tu.
>
> I do not understand why the installer insists in having a CD drive around. I was lucky I could borrow a CD drive, but I think it should be possible to install without a CD ROM using the alternate installer for those who cannot easily borrow a CD drive. Installation without CD drive DOES work with the graphical installer, which, however lacks the ability to set up a RAID (this is also something I do not understand).
>
> I am not saying this is a bug, but it is certainly something that needs to be addressed. How / where can I report this problem so that someone can take care of it?
>
> Matthias
>
>
> ---
> Matthias Brennwald
> Eawag, CH-8600 Dübendorf
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> matthias.brennwald at eawag.ch
>
>