Perc3Di SCSI RAID + Adaptec 2810SA RAID = Fatal Grub Error?

Linux OnTheEdge linuxontheedge at gmail.com
Sun Mar 20 15:42:41 UTC 2005


I have a Dell PowerEdge 2650 with on-board Adaptec Perc3Di SCSI RAID
controller (mirrored 18GB drives for OS).  It also has an add-in
Adaptec 2810SA 8-channel SATA RAID card.  After installing FC3, and
installing GRUB to the MBR of the mirrored 18GB drives for OS, when I
boot the system, I get  "GRUB Loading Stage2Read Error".

The Dell system and both RAID controllers were updated to their latest
BIOS versions prior to installing the OS.

I even tried (to no avail) booting the system into rescue mode with
the setup CDs and once booted, I chroot'ed, ran:
"grub-install /dev/sda".

When I remove the add-in card from the system, grub works perfectly
off of the on-board Adaptec Perc3Di SCSI RAID controller (mirrored
18GB drives for OS).

I don't think the latest Dell BIOS for this machine has the provision
to boot from add-in cards first, or to prioritize add-in cards after
the on-board devices.

I do know that the SATA add-in controller definately comes up first
after POST before the on-board SCSI controller's BIOS.

As suggested by various people, I booted the system into rescue mode
with the setup CDs and once booted, I chroot'ed, ran:

grub
grub> root(hd0,0)
grub> setup(hd0)

This command did not return any errors. All output looked successful
and normal from my experience on single-disk systems.

/boot/grub/devices.map, fdisk -l, and grub tab expansion output all
confirm that /dev/sda is indeed (hd0), and root is definately (hd0,0).

By the way, I also verified that /dev/sda1 is bootable, and that
/dev/sdb1 is not bootable.

Now, when I boot the system, instead of getting a grub stage 2 error,
I get a grub stage 1.5 error, even after additionally trying:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0)
grub> quit

Is there a way to also specify stage1.5's location?

Is there any way to make it so GRUB doesn't realize the add-in card is
installed?  Remember that it works when the add-in card is not
installed.

Does anyone know what the problem is?

My setup is

On-Board Raid:
/dev/sda (18GB Mirror)
/dev/sda1 = /boot
/dev/sda2 = /

External SATA Raid:
/dev/sdb (1.4 TB Raid5)
(unassigned)

CD-Rom
/dev/hda

I have this question on various message boards where people have
weighed in, but I still lack a fix, but just in case it helps:

- http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=48203
- http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=303265
- http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28285
- http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=881340
- http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/96509133/m/782001632731

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