Arg: no mdadm on Ubuntu 18.04.5 Desktop install disk?

[Robert Heller]

At Sun, 3 Jan 2021 01:42:45 +0100 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On Sat, 2 Jan 2021 at 22:07, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > WTF? Does Ubuntu 18.04 in fact not support software RAID during installation?
> 
> It used to.
> 
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SoftwareRAID
> 
> However, I have a feeling that it was dropped at some point, many years ago now.
> 
> There used to be "standard" and "alternate" CD ISOs and the alt was
> needed for things like upgrading an existing system _from CD_ as
> opposed to from the running system over the internet. Sadly I believe
> the alternate ISO no longer exists.

This is seriously dumb. I mean why drop these modules and tools? To save
space? Huh? I mean are they worried about the ISO not fitting on a 2gig thumb
drive? (Can you still get thumb drives that small?)

I have yet to see a desktop MB with fewer than 4 SATA ports, so having a RAID 
array on a desktop is possible, pretty much out-of-the box, at least on the 
hardware side. (Yes, I know laptops don't generally provide for multiple 
internal hard drives, so a *laptop* with an internal RAID array for the system 
disk is unlikely.)

> 
> > PS: I also have the Ubuntu 18.04.5 live server/install disk -- should I try
> > that instead?  Eg, does it have the RAID modules and mdadm in its init ramdisk
> > (appearently, the stock Ubuntu 18.04.5 disktop/install disk does not)?
> 
> Anyway, yes, I think you might get further with the server disk -- q.v.
> 
> https://support.us.ovhcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006076940-How-to-Configure-Software-RAID-on-Ubuntu-18-04
> 
> JOOI: why the older version, since 20.04.01 is out now?

I do software development work (mostly with open source projects) and want to 
maintain a level of downward compatibility on my development systems.  I want 
to be able to support older (and still maintained!) systems.  *I* hate it when 
open source projects require "bleeding edge" O/S, esp. when the projects are 
not doing anything that really requires the "bleeding edge" O/S, but merely 
because the developers are just developing on bleeding edge O/S.

It is not like 18.04 is going EOL anytime soon. And I will upgrade in a couple
of years. I have never seen any *good* reason to stand on the bleeding edge. 

> 
> Although saying that, the new server install has its own fancy
> disk-partitioning setup and it might be problematic.

Something I would rather avoid.  The "standard" Ubuntu installer is way to 
user-friendly for my tastes.  I would really rather avoid an X11 based 
installer if at all possible (it looks like it won't be with Ubuntu).

> 
> I upgraded my 18.04 laptop to 20.04 recently and it went fairly well.
> It tried to show me all my calendar notifications for the last 2 years
> or something in one go, and made a lot of noise and locked the desktop
> trying to display thousands of notifications. I dropped to text mode,
> killed a few apps, but the desktop didn't come back, so I rebooted
> from a vconsole. 2nd boot was fine and both GNOME and Unity are
> working fine now. (As "fine" as GNOME ever works, anyway.)
> 

Oh, I won't be having anything to do with GNOME or Unity -- just some minimual 
bits from Mate.  (I find *all* of the "modern" desktop environments horribly 
hard to use.)

-- 
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