# RAID 0 and linux live CDs



## brokenhead (Oct 11, 2006)

I have a RAID 0 setup that works great with win XP. (RocketRAID 133 IDE hardware adapter controlling 2 160 GB ATA drives.) Trouble is, ever since going over to RAID 0, none of my live Linux CDs will boot. There is a short screen readout that starts with:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000

...and ends with:

<0>Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

The distros included Knoppix 3.7 and Kanotix 2005-02, as well as SuSE 10.1 live.

Why should a bootable, live OS care what kind of HDD setup I have? It doesn't need to read or write anything to the hard disk. Am I missing something?

I should mention that I also added some memory (which also functions great under win XP) so that my DIMM slots went from: 256, none, 256, none to: 256, 512, 256, 512.

Why should that matter, either?


----------



## brokenhead (Oct 11, 2006)

As a follow-up, I'd like to mention that I want to dual-boot with a linux distro that reads the RAID setup, but that isn't crucial. I could install it to my non-RAID drive. The problem is, no install disk boots all the way to the setup, whether graphic or text. I've tried Fedora Core 6, Kubuntu 6.10, Mandriva 2007, SuSE 10.1... Whatever is halting the live CDs from booting is also preventing setup in every case. Again, my XP has never been better and my Reatogo PE boots fine.
All ideas are welcome!! Thanks!!


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi brokenhead,

Have you tried Ubuntu Live CD 6.06 LTS yet? It may work.

While I do not run RAID, I do run Ubuntu Live CD 6.0.6 LTS and note for the record that it always starts up RAID drivers successfully and on shutdown fails the shutdown (since I don't have any RAID). I just wish on startup it would not (by default) start up the RAID drivers, i.e. detect non-existence and avoid that startup, and do the same on shutdown.

-- Tom


----------



## brokenhead (Oct 11, 2006)

Thanks for the response.
Ubuntu Live CD 6.06 didn't work. NO live linux CD worked, and I tried a lot of them.
I traded in the RocketRAID 133 for RocketRAID 464 (apparently, most systems are SATA now and my 2-yr-old Gateway is PATA, which led to a diminished choice of RAID cards at MicroCenter, where I like to buy my stuff.)
Now the live CDs all work!
Next step, which distro recognizes the hardware RAID? Because I want to install a linux distro and multi-boot. I tried SUSE 10.1 (remastered), and it specifically said "Kernel 2.4 supported RocketRAID but Kernel 2.6 does not _at all_."
Sounds like the end of a beautiful dream!
Mandriva 2007 powerpack DID recognize the RocketRAID during install, however - and that's Kernel 2.6.17! What gives? Do the SUSE folks know their Kernel?
I got as far as formatting a partition on the RAID drive to accept the Mandriva install and starting the actual install, when the system froze. Now all setup will tell me is "I can't read your partition table - it is corrupt!"
So the search goes on for a Distro that will install on a RocketRAID 464 2-disk system (RAID 0). 
You'd think since linux is widely used as a server OS it would be more "friendly" dealing with array controllers such as my RAID card.
All ideas welcome!!!


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi brokenhead,

Did you get a Live CD to work with any Linux distro? Do you have SATA now?

-- Tom


----------



## brokenhead (Oct 11, 2006)

I do not have SATA yet.
All the live distros work, but not for install. Thanks for the response. I've put Linux on the back burner for now.


----------



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi brokenhead,

Read my response here with regard to Gparted + SATA RAID. It may solve your RAID driver issue.

-- Tom

-- Tom


----------

