software RAID array not starting in initramfs on Debian

Question

One of my Debian servers (kernel 2.6.30-AMD64) refuses to start the software RAID array that houses the root partition in initramfs. It dumps me with a busybox console. When I follow the necessary steps to continue booting it works fine (start the array with mdadm -A and then have LVM scan the volumes with pvscan and then vgchange -ay).

I've tried starting with boot options rootdelay=10 to no avail.

Also I've updated the initramfs and unpacked it to inspect whether it really tries to assemble the raid array (it does).

Output before dumping to console :

mount: mounting none on /dev failed: No such device
W: devtmpfs not available, falling back to tpmfs for /dev

and then some lvm messages saying it can't find the volumes holding the root partitions.

Does anybody have a clue how I could fix this?

have you changed the partition IDs to RAID autodetect? (`set 1 raid on` in `parted`) — Hubert Kario, Oct 18 '10 at 21:36
yes, well, I didn't change them, they were already set on creation. Under 'Flags' in parted it says raid on all partitions that need to be assembled. — Jasper, Oct 19 '10 at 11:11

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

1

You may need to create /etc/mdadm.conf and possibly rebuild initramfs. Check this answer for details.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

Community

1

answered Nov 24 '11 at 05:03

dtoubelis

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yes, I have the /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf (this being Debian) and it's correct and I did update the initramfs and checked it and it's correct. I can also see that the initramfs 'knows' it's correct, because I can assemble with mdadm --assemble --scan (in initramfs shell). – Jasper Nov 25 '11 at 14:43

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '17 at 06:59

For starting server by hand, please try:

(initramfs) mdadm /dev/md0 -A /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
[...]
(initramfs) mdadm /dev/md1 -A /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2
[...]
(initramfs) mdadm /dev/md2 -A /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb3
[...]

and so on, all of your md partitions.

If you have LVM, go on with:

(initramfs) vgchange -ay
  3 logical volume(s) in volume group "pve" now active

then simply type:

(initramfs) exit

and if all is fine, your system will boot.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 20 '22 at 03:26

I have similar problem, with duplicate name on mdadm.conf

I fix on the following way, thanks to user130370 solution. [initramfs]mdadm --examine --scan > /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf [initramfs]mdadm -q --assemble --scan --run [initramfs]exit

rebot automatically

from the system as first

#update-initramfs -u

software RAID array not starting in initramfs on Debian

3 Answers3