udevd error on boot

[KaIIen]

OK. So I finally convinced a friend of mine to install Linux on his laptop. He finally got fed up with Windows, and has decided to do it.

So I now have his Sony Vaio VGN-AR670. Mint 13 Maya runs prefectly from the LiveCD. When I installed, it gave me the error that bootloaded couldn't be installed to "/dev/mapper". Apprently, this system has a RAID configuration...The fix for this I found was to install boot-repair while running the live CD.

So I go through the process of running boot-repair. At the end, it gives this error message:

An error occured during the repair.
Please write on a piece of paper the the following URL:
Paste2 - Viewing Paste 2637018

GRUB is now intalled at least. On first reboot, when I select Mint, all I get is a blank screen. HDD indicator is not flashing.

On second reboot, I get this message:
udevd[118]: inotify_add_watch(6, /dev/dm-2, 10) failed: No such file or directory

(On my last attempt, the code was [108] and /dev/dm-1)

I have never had issue installing Linux (I have installed many times on several machines) until this. This is my first RAID setup, so I am at a loss. Please help!

[devils casper]

Linux installation procedure in RAID Setup is different from regular install. You have to consider and setup a few things during installation. iirc, Ubuntu and Mint LiveCD installers don't support RAID setup. Use Alternate Installation CD ( text based installer ) for this.

I would suggest you to check this tutorial. Its a bit old but instructions are almost same for latest versions.

[KaIIen]

Thanks for that link. Wow, that's a LOT of info. I don't even know what type of RAID this thing has... nor have I been able to determine if it's a hardware controller or "fakeraid". I found mention of a program called mdadm that will show me a bunch of stuff, but when I installed it (commanmd line) it was a mail server configuration tool. From what I have found, if it's harware controlled RAID, that where the extra problems come in, but supposedly Mint/Ubuntu can work with FakeRAID. Either way, the info you linked to is almost overwhelming... I think I am just gonna remove the Mint partition and put it back the way it was before, without Linux. I am afraid of messing his laptop up because this is above my experience level.

[HROAdmin26]

This is "software RAID", AKA "fakeRAID", done by the SATA chip (note the isw_ in the name.) I like Mint as well and dislike how it/Ubuntu don't handle this config well. You want to install the bootloader to the RAID device itself - in this case it's:

/dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0

While the Mint installer might list this as an option during the install, I have seen it fail to install GRUB to this device (almost every time.) What you then have to do is complete the install, but realize GRUB, the bootloader, is not installed and a reboot will use the Win bootloader (and go straight into Windows.) To correct the issue, you can reboot using the same Mint LiveCD, manually mount the just-installed Mint volume, chroot to the on-disk OS, and re-run grub-install (which then completes successfully.) There are lots of how-to's on reinstalling GRUB from a LiveCD, such as this one.

Shooting from the hip on your install, it would be something like:

mount /dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0p5 /mnt/
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
chroot /mnt/ /bin/bash
/usr/sbin/grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0

[KaIIen]

This is "software RAID", AKA "fakeRAID", done by the SATA chip (note the isw_ in the name.) I like Mint as well and dislike how it/Ubuntu don't handle this config well. You want to install the bootloader to the RAID device itself - in this case it's:

/dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0

While the Mint installer might list this as an option during the install, I have seen it fail to install GRUB to this device (almost every time.) What you then have to do is complete the install, but realize GRUB, the bootloader, is not installed and a reboot will use the Win bootloader (and go straight into Windows.) To correct the issue, you can reboot using the same Mint LiveCD, manually mount the just-installed Mint volume, chroot to the on-disk OS, and re-run grub-install (which then completes successfully.) There are lots of how-to's on reinstalling GRUB from a LiveCD, such as this one.

Shooting from the hip on your install, it would be something like:

mount /dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0p5 /mnt/
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
chroot /mnt/ /bin/bash
/usr/sbin/grub-install /dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0

Thanks for this. So, when I initially installed Mint, I first used GParted to cut resize the Windows partiton by half. Not realizing that this was a RAID setup vs. a single disk. Does that make a difference?

I have since, out of frustration mainly and a healthy dose of fear of messing up someone elsels computer, deleted the Mint partition and the computer is now just as it was when I got it. If GParted is ok method, I might try again tonight after work.

[HROAdmin26]

GParted has no control over the volume name, etc. If it successfully resized the (correct) volume, then its job is done. I assume that during the Mint install, GRUB failed to install. You can always re-run the Mint install and verify the same results. Since the Win bootloader will not look for any other OS by default, most use GRUB for the main system bootloader. GRUB needs to be installed to:

/dev/mapper/isw_becjebdjff_Volume0

[KaIIen]

While the Mint installer might list this as an option during the install, I have seen it fail to install GRUB to this device (almost every time.) What you then have to do is complete the install, but realize GRUB, the bootloader, is not installed and a reboot will use the Win bootloader (and go straight into Windows.)

Yup, this is EXACTLY where I got to. S I resized partition and reinstalled Mint. Your solution worked perfectly! So far it's booting up correctly! Thanks for the help!!

Is there anything I need to be aware of in regards to a RAID setup?

Thanks!