R: Problem with Serial ATA RAID (aka "fake RAID" or "BIOS RAID")

[Giorgio Buffa]

Hi Thomas,
thank you for your reply!

> I would try to avoid RST, and just use software raid.
> In your shell.log you have this line:
> 
> ERROR: Found Software RAID, but the mdadm package was not installed
> 
> You need the mdadm package installed, if you use software raid.
> 
> Try again with the package mdadm added, but I guess the fake raid is the
cause
> of your problem.

I've tried with the package mdadm added. The error in log files disappeared,
but the RAID1 array was damaged (it was marked as degraded, since the first
disk was expelled from the array itself).

So I've made another try (by re-installing from scratch without the mdadm
package). After the installation, I've followed the procedure in [1] and it
worked.
It basically states to use debian-installer to boot a rescue system with
"dmraid=true" kernel parameter (experimental! [2]), which is used to
re-configure and re-install the GRUB bootloader on the fake RAID volume.

Probably you're right to just use software RAID: it seems to be more
flexible, easier to use and better supported.

Kind regards,
Giorgio B.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/SataRaid
[2]
https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/amd64/ch05s03.html.en#installer-args