Cannot add new drive to Fedora 10

[heals1ic]

I have a ASUS P4P800 delux motherboard with 2 40GB drives on the IDE raid controller (VIA chip) built into the MB set up as Raid1 (mirror) for OS and 2 320GB SATA drives coming off a PCI raid card (Silicon Image chip) setup as raid1 for data. I am running Fedora 10 with gnome desktop.

Both these are setup as logical volumes in their own groups (2 logical volume groups and 1 logical volume in each).

I am attempting to add a 5th disk (80GB) for virtual machines just off the standard IDE controller on the MB. The disk has a ext3 partition and partition type linux (I have also tried linux LVM).

When I boot up the system it all looks ok but will now not proceed into gnome. This does not just happen with this particular disk either I have tried booting with another 40GB ide drive and same result - all the services start but I am left with a black screen with flashing cursor at top left. I can type text but it is not a command prompt. The mouse also works as a block on the screen in text mode.

I can bring up a remote SSH terminal and check that all is well and dmesg does not list any issues with hardware.

ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: version 2.12
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: enabling device (0005 -> 0007)
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: setting latency timer to 64
scsi0 : ata_piix
scsi1 : ata_piix
ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xfc00 irq 14
ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xfc08 irq 15
ata1.00: ATA-6: WDC WD800JB-00ETA0, 77.07W77, max UDMA/100
ata1.00: 156301488 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata2.00: ATAPI: LITE-ON DVDRW LDW-451S, GSBC, max UDMA/33
ata2.01: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B, 1.06, max MWDMA2
ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata2.01: configured for MWDMA2
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD800JB-00ET 77.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
 sda: sda1
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

I run fdisk -l and the new 80GB drive is listed and looks happy as /dev/sda with the one partition /dev/sda1.

[root@fedora ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41146cd2

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9729    78148192   83  Linux

I cannot mount the drive as it says that it is "an invalid block device /dev/sda1".

[root@fedora /]# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /VM
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

I therefore cannot create a new logical volume group and add this drive to a new volume within that group as I need a HD device to attach. Running mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1 also fails.

[root@fedora /]# vgcreate virtual_machines /dev/sda1
  Found duplicate PV IEOzInpn3aC253TPJe622kEAUyZNxzHT: using /dev/sde2 not /dev/sdd2
  /dev/sda1 not identified as an existing physical volume
  Unable to add physical volume '/dev/sda1' to volume group 'virtual_machines'.

If I connect the drive via USB and it will not detect the drive. But it will do so for other drives.

SMART also reports that the drive is ok as well.

I have run Knoppix live CD and it boots ok and detects the drive. I still cannot mount it and nor can I do any LVM stuff with it as I would normally do in knoppix live CD.

Anyone have any ideas?

I have spent a considerable amount of time on trying to solve this issue both reading forums and trial and error on my own but have reached the stage where I have to post for help.

Help!!

[heals1ic]

I have the most up to date bios for the MB and these is no option for sata drives as ata/ide/pata drives. The MB has 2 standard IDE ports, 2 SATA ports and 2 RAID IDE ports. This totals 10 devices at once if the power supply could handle it.

Currently I have 2 DVD drives on 1 IDE channel and the problematic 80GB drive on the other IDE channel. Nothing on the 2 onboard SATA connections and 2 40GB drives on 1 of the RAID IDE channels. I also have a PCI SATA RAID card with 2 drives off that.

Used qtparted to format drive after cold plugged via usb and it formatted ok.

I can now mount it when it is connected via usb.

I shutdown and swap to IDE and all hell breaks loose behind the scenes.

I am getting rpmdb errors from yum and rpm --rebuilddb also produces errors.

Here is the xsession-errors output with drive on IDE controller

imsettings information
==========================
Is DBus enabled: yes
Is imsettings enabled: yes
Is GTK+ supported: yes
Is Qt supported: no
DESKTOP_SESSION: gnome
DISABLE_IMSETTINGS: 
IMSETTINGS_DISABLE_DESKTOP_CHECK: 
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS: unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-Q1jQrgp5ga,guid=9e51a99afee0937b529a1280499c94d9
GTK_IM_MODULE: 
QT_IM_MODULE: 
XMODIFIERS: @im=imsettings
IMSETTINGS_MODULE: none

Started none
Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /root/.config/metacity/sessions/10784390a61049ffe123499849113000900000035890022.ms: Failed to open file '/root/.config/metacity/sessions/10784390a61049ffe123499849113000900000035890022.ms': No such file or directory
Acceleration key: disabled
*** Exiting...
XSETTINGS manager support is explicitly disabled.
Failed to play sound: Not available
W: main.c: This program is not intended to be run as root (unless --system is specified).
19/02/2009 10:08:15 AM Autoprobing TCP port 
19/02/2009 10:08:15 AM Autoprobing selected port 5900
19/02/2009 10:08:15 AM Advertising authentication type: 'VNC Authentication' (2)
19/02/2009 10:08:15 AM Advertising security type: 'VNC Authentication' (2)

** (nm-applet:3916): WARNING **: No connections defined

** (nautilus:3899): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Not supported
could not attach to desktop process
Window manager warning: Invalid WM_TRANSIENT_FOR window 0x7e specified for 0x38001cc (qtparted).
Error: Could not detect file system.
Error: Could not detect file system.
Error: File system has an incompatible feature enabled.
nm-applet: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
vino-server: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
Window manager warning: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on display ':0.0'.
gnome-screensaver: Fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server :0.0.

** ERROR **: couldn't get D-Bus connection: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-Q1jQrgp5ga: Connection refused
aborting...
The application 'gnome-session' lost its connection to the display :0.0;
most likely the X server was shut down or you killed/destroyed
the application.
gnome-terminal: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.0.
The application 'gnome-panel' lost its connection to the display :0.0;
most likely the X server was shut down or you killed/destroyed
the application.

(vino-server:4219): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0

This would explain why gnome was not starting as the xsession was crashing.

And without drive attached rpmdb is fine. Ran a rpm --rebuild to sure and no errors.

Is there anywhere else I should be looking for clues?

[heals1ic]

I have update the fstab file to use UUID's -

#/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
UUID=5e164ae8-ab45-4cd1-b075-0de0ee5081f3 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
UUID=d0e85ed8-6f32-4aa6-9fe4-1e0d0ea3d132 /boot                   ext3    defaults        1 2
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
UUID=d4e8f675-e5fe-46ac-bd07-5be356473844 swap                   swap    defaults        0 0
#/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap                   swap    defaults        0 0
#/dev/whizOSvg/LogVol00  /utilities              ext3    defaults        0 0
UUID=63e345d0-8c7f-4316-90b8-df0a8c331065  /utilities              ext3    defaults        0 0

When I boot with the extra drive attached to IDE cable the system still fails to load gnome and destroys the Xsession.

Have I missed something?

[buccaneere]

I don't know the solution here - it's obvious to me that your tech level is above mine.

BUT, I put cash on the source of the problem is disk naming/enumeration conflict between bios and Linux.

I just went through a similar problem when adding disks to my PCI/IDE controller card. I added PCLOS and FC8 to the 3rd disk (the PCI card), and both OS's made their own GRUB entries on the disk, calling it (hd2), whereas BIOS called that disk (hd0) (or vice versa). This in spite of EVERY manipulation of boot device order...

[heals1ic]

I have got around the problem by installing a second PCI SATA raid card into the motherboard and attaching my 80GB drive to it.

The drive now is allocated /dev/sde and no longer screws with the rest of the system. I suspect that now the drive is being recognised later in the boot process and therefore not tacking the coveted /dev/sda device spot.

Would have been nice to find a solution that I could use my onboard harddisk controllers and allocate the device names manually to avoid any conflicts.

Let me know if anyone still has any ideas.

PS. Thanks buccaneere for your reply