FAQ about the smart array disks

---

• My purpose is/was to make a simple and compact disk set to install Red Hat Linux on a Compaq with a smart array controller
• The new version of Red Hat (6.0) will have support for Compaq array controllers in the installation procedure.
• My disks are for power users (otherwise you don't own a proliant). I suppose that upgrading to 2.2.x is a piece of cake for them.

• I boot with my disks and make a 350 MB root partition
• I run my install script and everything else
• After installing I check or everything runs fine
• If yes, I start to move the stuff to new partitions :
• OK, let's move /usr to a separate partition
• Start with my boot and rootdisk
• Mount the root partition on /mnt/compaq --> mount /dev/c0d0px /mnt/compaq (Where x is your root partition)
• Make with fdisk a new linux native partition, let's say it's /dev/ida/c0d0p3
• Make the file system : mke2fs /dev/ida/c0d0p3
• Check the file system : e2fsck -f /dev/ida/c0d0p3
• Make a temporary directory and mount this new partition on it :

cd /mnt ; mkdir newusr
mount /dev/ida/c0d0p3 /mnt/newusr
• Copy all the stuff : cd /mnt/compaq/usr ; cp -f -R -d -p * /mnt/newusr
• Remove /mnt/compaq/usr : cd /mnt/compaq ; rm -rf usr
• Recreate /mnt/compaq/usr : cd /mnt/compaq ; mkdir usr
• Mount the install disk (vi is on it) : mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
• Change /mnt/compaq/etc/fstab and add this line :

/dev/ida/c0d0p3 /usr ext2 defaults 1 2
• Umount /mnt/newusr ; umount /mnt/compaq ; umount /mnt/floppy
• Remove the floppy and reboot the Compaq
• We are ready and have made a /usr partition
• Repeat this steps for every partition you want to make

• Mount the install floppy and the Redhat 5.2 CD
• mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
• mount /dev/hda /mnt/cdrom
• Create the partitions with fdisk
• fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0
• here I create two primary partitions.
• c0d0p1 for / 300MB
• c0d0p2 for /swap 127MB
• then create an extended partition on what's left over on the drive.
• you can divide this area up any way you like, but I choose to create three
• partitions each at 2GB each, since I had tons of disk available. FYI,
• there is no c0d0p3 or c0d0p4 shown because partition 3 was not used, and
• partition 4 is the placeholder for the extended partitions.
• c0d0p5 for /usr
• c0d0p6 for /var
• c0d0p7 for /tmp
• Make the symlink to the root partition
• ln -s /dev/ida/c0d0p1 /dev/rootpart
• Format the partitions
• mke2fs /dev/ida/c0d0p1
• mke2fs /dev/ida/c0d0p5
• mke2fs /dev/ida/c0d0p6
• mke2fs /dev/ida/c0d0p7
• Check the partitions
• e2fsck -f /dev/ida/c0d0p1
• e2fsck -f /dev/ida/c0d0p5
• e2fsck -f /dev/ida/c0d0p6
• e2fsck -f /dev/ida/c0d0p7
• Mount the root partition
• mount /dev/rootpart /mnt/compaq
• Make the mountpoints for the other partitions
• mkdir /mnt/compaq/usr
• mkdir /mnt/compaq/var
• mkdir /mnt/compaq/tmp
• Mount the other partitions
• mount /dev/ida/c0d0p5 /mnt/compaq/usr
• mount /dev/ida/c0d0p6 /mnt/compaq/var
• mount /dev/ida/c0d0p7 /mnt/compaq/tmp
• Install the rpm's
• cd /mnt/floppy
• ./rpminstall.sh
• Copy some config files
• cp -f /mnt/floppy/etc/network /mnt/compaq/etc/sysconfig
• cp -f /mnt/floppy/etc/lilo.conf /mnt/compaq/etc
• cp -f /mnt/floppy/etc/fstab /mnt/compaq/etc
• Install the compaq patches
• cd /mnt/floppy/RPMS
• rpm --root /mnt/compaq --nodeps --force compaqarray-patch-1.0-2.i386.rpm
• Modify lilo.conf and fstab
• cd /mnt/compaq/etc
• vi lilo.conf
• /mnt/compaq/sbin/lilo -r /mnt/compaq
• vi /mnt/compaq/etc/fstab
• using vi edit the fstab file to mount the new directories
• /dev/ida/c0d0p1 /
• /dev/ida/c0d0p2 /swap
• /dev/ida/c0d0p5 /usr
• /dev/ida/c0d0p6 /var
• /dev/ida/c0d0p7 /tmp
• Sync the disks
• sync
• sync
• sync
• Umount everything
• umount -a
• Then just reboot and it should come up fine! I think I had already run mkswap on /dev/ida/c0d0p2, so I didn't need to on first reboot, but you may have to to get the swap partition to run correctly if running this for the first time.