MAX711 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Anyone got software RAID working in Snow? Most of the bootloaders out there seem to be using PC EFI 10.1 which I don't think handles software raid. I tried using Chameleon 2rc1 with the 10.1 boot file but no luck. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerbull Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 With Leopard you can just follow the guide on http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=160467 But with SL there is a problem. In order for bootloader to be able to start the operating system from Boot OSX partition it must contain a copy of kernel and some additional files all of which are copied there during installation. And they are not created if you install Mac OS from the osinstall.mpkg file. The partial solution is installing Leopard on raid first then formatiing RAID volume and finally installing SL on it. PCI_EFI will hook up Leo kernel from Boot OSX to load SL from RAID volume. But this method can cause some troubles too as it involves using an old kernel to boot newer OS. For example some kexts from Extra won't load. And to just replace mach_kernel in Boot OSX with newer version is not an option. Probably the best and most simple solution is to install SL booting from its DVD. But for now i've got a problem doing so therefore i cant say for sure that SL installer will fill Boot OSX partitions properly. I would be glad if you try to install SL from DVD and report the results. Upd.: The problem has nothing to do with PC_EFI as it handles RAID booting just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tapper00` Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 I can boot the SL DVD and Create a software raid using (2) Samsung SATA Drives. I can select the Raid drive through the installer and installation goes well. When I reboot, with -v it looks like everything is loading ok, fakesmc, etc,etc.... Where it hangs is on this: USBF: AppleUSBEHCI {0xff..............]: :found a transaction past the completion deadline........... timing out!.... waiting for root device... repeats repeats I know at one time (in leopard) you had to put boot files at the beginning of one of your raid slices in order for the kernel to load. But this looks like it is loading and kexts are loading. Anybody have any idea on this error when booting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAX711 Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 That's more progresses than I made! I can't even get it past the boot screen. I have a 10.5.8 install running great on soft raid so I basically did the same setup with my snow. With PC EFI / Chameleon you have to "fdisk" the 2 separate raid slices, then "dd" the "Boot OSX" volumes on each raid slice then copy the "boot" file to each raid slice. Did you just run the Chameleon installer package on your raid disk or on each separate raid slice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tapper00` Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 That's more progresses than I made! I can't even get it past the boot screen. I have a 10.5.8 install running great on soft raid so I basically did the same setup with my snow. With PC EFI / Chameleon you have to "fdisk" the 2 separate raid slices, then "dd" the "Boot OSX" volumes on each raid slice then copy the "boot" file to each raid slice. Did you just run the Chameleon installer package on your raid disk or on each separate raid slice? Got it working using this guide. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...p;mode=threaded Used time machine instead of super duper or carbon copy to restore SL to raid drive. also, before you unmount each boot OSX partition, make sure you replace the boot file with netkas 10.1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerbull Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 tapper00` Check if you have added your array's ID to com.apple.boot.plist on the bootloader partiton as described in the guide that i mentioned above. Also can you be so kind as to make a dmg image of you Boot OSX Partition and attach to post/upload it somewhere? It would be great in my situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waveman777 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Hi. I got it working for now, testing it. Try this guide I did everything from there step by step - and it works for me. But did some changes - I used Chameleon RC1 instead of RC2 because RC2 didn't work. And instead of using CCC or SuperDuper I used Restore option from Disk Utility. When you'll finish - delete "Extra" folder and "boot" file from your RAID partition. Just leave it in 2 small partitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAX711 Posted September 2, 2009 Author Share Posted September 2, 2009 Hi. I got it working for now, testing it. Try this guide I did everything from there step by step - and it works for me. But did some changes - I used Chameleon RC1 instead of RC2 because RC2 didn't work. And instead of using CCC or SuperDuper I used Restore option from Disk Utility. When you'll finish - delete "Extra" folder and "boot" file from your RAID partition. Just leave it in 2 small partitions. Giving it a shot now. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAX711 Posted September 5, 2009 Author Share Posted September 5, 2009 Well, after 3 days of , I've kind of got it working. The only way I can get it to boot into a software RAID set is to boot off a USB stick or another drive and just set the UUID of the raid volume in com.apple.Boot.plist and smbios.plist. The "old" way in 10.5.8 was to fdisk boot0 to each raid slice then dd boot1h to the boot sector, etc, etc. Just doesn't want to work in SL though. All the threads on "how-to-install on a...." use a packaged version of Chameleon 2 RC1 and EFI v10.1. I need to know what's going on inside the installer to see why it's not working on softRAID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tapper00` Posted September 5, 2009 Share Posted September 5, 2009 Well, after 3 days of , I've kind of got it working. The only way I can get it to boot into a software RAID set is to boot off a USB stick or another drive and just set the UUID of the raid volume in com.apple.Boot.plist and smbios.plist. The "old" way in 10.5.8 was to fdisk boot0 to each raid slice then dd boot1h to the boot sector, etc, etc. Just doesn't want to work in SL though. All the threads on "how-to-install on a...." use a packaged version of Chameleon 2 RC1 and EFI v10.1. I need to know what's going on inside the installer to see why it's not working on softRAID. I had that problem initially. If I didnt have my usb boot stick in, I would get a boot0 error. I went back through the guide I posted earlier. Re-did all the steps... except the second time I didnt flag each boot OSX partition active. Booted into raid fine, no problems since. Just remember, you need to create your raid in Snow Leopard. Restore a working SL to the raid (I used TM) and replace the cham. boot file with Netkas' 10.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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