How to manually partition nexenta (opensolaris)

jlliagre · 09-12-2006, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikaelstaldal

That might be the case. I don't understand Solaris device names.

c<controller number>d<disk number>p<partition number> means it's a disk with no target, either IDE or SATA in PATA emulation mode.
c<controller number>t<target number>d<disk number>p<partition number> means a disk with a target (SCSI ID) or SATA when a supported controller is used.
p0 mean the whole disk
the command "grep -i sata /boot/solaris/devicedb/master" should show you the supported SATA controllers on your Solaris release.

mikaelstaldal · 09-13-2006, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

the command "grep -i sata /boot/solaris/devicedb/master" should show you the supported SATA controllers on your Solaris release.

Code:

pci1095,3112 pci-ide msd pci ata.bef "Silicon Image 3112 SATA Controller"
pci1095,3114 pci-ide msd pci ata.bef "Silicon Image 3114 SATA Controller"
pci1095,3512 pci-ide msd pci ata.bef "Silicon Image 3512 SATA Controller"
pci1000,50 pci1000,50 msd pci none "LSI Logic 1064 SAS/SATA HBA"

jlliagre · 09-13-2006, 02:40 PM

Okay, now you can run "/usr/X11/bin/pcitweak -l" and see if you have one of these, eg pci1095,3112 match "chip 1095,3112".

mikaelstaldal · 09-14-2006, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Okay, now you can run "/usr/X11/bin/pcitweak -l" and see if you have one of these, eg pci1095,3112 match "chip 1095,3112".

I have no "/usr/X11/bin/pcitweak", but I have "/usr/bin/pcitweak" and it says I don't have any of these.

It seems like my SATA controller is:

Code:

PCI: 00:1f:2: chip 8086,27c0 card 1028,01ad rev 01 class 01,01,8f hdr 00

since "lspci" says:

Code:

0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controllers cc=IDE (rev 01)

Too bad Solaris doesn't support it. I guess it's quite common since it is the standard controller in my Dell machine.

jlliagre · 09-14-2006, 10:42 AM

Is there a setting in your BIOS to toggle your SATA interface to PATA emulation / non RAID mode or something like this ?

mikaelstaldal · 09-15-2006, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Is there a setting in your BIOS to toggle your SATA interface to PATA emulation / non RAID mode or something like this ?

Yes, there is some kind of mode for compatibility with older operating systems (is OpenSolaris an "older operating system"?). When I activated that, I got different results:

Code:

fdisk -G /dev/rdsk/c0d0p0

* PCYL  NCYL  ACYL BCYL NHEAD NSECT SECSIZ
  30393 30393 0    0    255   63    512

Code:

fdisk -v -W - /dev/rdsk/c0d0p0

* Id  Act Bhead Bsect Bcyl Ehead Esect Ecyl Rsect     Numsect
  131 128 1     1     0    254   63    1023 63        443361807
  5   0   254   63    1023 254   63    1023 484279424 4000185

Still no output from "devfsadm -v".

But the installation program still behaves in the same way

Linux fdisk says this about my harddisk:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       27598   221680903+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3           30146       30394     2000092+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           30146       30394     2000061   82  Linux swap / Solaris

I want NexentaOS to create a partition and install itself in the free space between /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda3 (in Linux terms).

jlliagre · 09-15-2006, 04:54 AM

Okay, that's better now. Solaris properly see your disk.

You have 20 GB available to create partition #2. I would suggest you to create this partition under Linux (that would be /dev/sda2) and give it the Solaris2 id (0xbf) then see if Nexenta installer agree to install itself there (/dev/rdsk/c0d0p2).

mikaelstaldal · 09-20-2006, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Okay, that's better now. Solaris properly see your disk.

You have 20 GB available to create partition #2. I would suggest you to create this partition under Linux (that would be /dev/sda2) and give it the Solaris2 id (0xbf) then see if Nexenta installer agree to install itself there (/dev/rdsk/c0d0p2).

I have done that now, and it installed without any errors. However, now I cannot boot Nexenta. I answered NO on the question about installing GRUB in MBR, since I didn't want to loose ability to boot Linux.

How can I make my Linux-GRUB to boot Nexenta?

I have tried this,

Code:

title           Nexenta OS "Elatte" [Chainload]
root            (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader     +1
boot

but I get

Code:

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

jlliagre · 09-20-2006, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikaelstaldal

I have done that now, and it installed without any errors. However, now I cannot boot Nexenta. I answered NO on the question about installing GRUB in MBR

That was a mistake.

Quote:

since I didn't want to loose ability to boot Linux.

There was no reason to suspect this, grub can boot linux.

Quote:

How can I make my Linux-GRUB to boot Nexenta?

You can't.

Quote:

I have tried this,

Code:

title           Nexenta OS "Elatte" [Chainload]
root            (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader     +1
boot

Ok, that is not technically having Linux grub booting linux, just Linux grub passing the control to whatever boot loader is on that partition, if any. That could have been:

Code:

root (hd0,1,a)
kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot
module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive

with Solaris grub, which have then really booted Solaris O/S

Quote:

but I get

Code:

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Indeed, the grub delivered with Linux distros doesn't include Sun's contributions, and so has no driver for the ufs filesystem nor does it understand what a VTOC is.

I never tried that, but I believe you can fix that by running Sun's installgrub:

Code:

 installgrub stage1 stage2 /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0

And edit you Solaris /boot/grub/menu.lst to have you linux entry so you can switch back to Linux.
Make sure Solaris one is correct.

Alternatively, you may want to replace your Linux grub by the Solaris one by adding the "-m" option (MBR) to the installgrub command.

mikaelstaldal · 09-21-2006, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

That was a mistake.

Now I have installed it again and allowed it to install GRUB in MBR. I ended up with a defunct GRUB (it only displayed "GRUB" and did not accept any keyboard input). I couldn't boot Nextenta nor Linux

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

does it understand what a VTOC is.

Neither do I.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

I never tried that, but I believe you can fix that by running Sun's installgrub:

I ran Sun's installgrub with -m. That made GRUB work, but I dit only get the GRUB command line, not any menu. Now I can boot my Linux manually, but still not Nexenta, it can't find the kernel. It doesn't seems to be able to read the Nextenta partition properly.

I tried to boot from the install CD and mount the Nexenta partition, but it didn't work.

jlliagre · 09-21-2006, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikaelstaldal

Now I have installed it again and allowed it to install GRUB in MBR. I ended up with a defunct GRUB (it only displayed "GRUB" and did not accept any keyboard input). I couldn't boot Nextenta nor Linux

Ouch, too bad ...

Quote:

Neither do I.

Well, the label is a kind of table of "subpartitions", named slices, which all reside inside a primary partition. This is conceptually not very different than extended partitions, and Linux, with ufs support, treat them mostly the same.

Quote:

I ran Sun's installgrub with -m. That made GRUB work, but I dit only get the GRUB command line, not any menu. Now I can boot my Linux manually, but still not Nexenta, it can't find the kernel. It doesn't seems to be able to read the Nextenta partition properly.

What is your active partition ?

Quote:

I tried to boot from the install CD and mount the Nexenta partition, but it didn't work.

How did you try to mount it ?
Did you succeeded doing it before or was it the first time you did that ?
What was the error ?
Is your linux distro seeing the nexenta slices ?

mikaelstaldal · 09-22-2006, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Ouch, too bad ...

I guess it wasn't so much of a mistake to not allow it to do that the first time

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

What is your active partition ?

The partition where I tried to install Nexenta (/dev/sda2 in Linux).

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

How did you try to mount it ?
Did you succeeded doing it before or was it the first time you did that ?
What was the error ?

It was the first time I tried.

Code:

# mkdir /aux

# mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s2 /aux
mount: I/O error
mount: Cannot mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s2

# mount /dev/dsk/c0d0p2 /aux
mount: I/O error
mount: Cannot mount /dev/dsk/c0d0p2

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Is your linux distro seeing the nexenta slices ?

I don't think so, Linux fdisk says:

Code:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       27598   221680903+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2   *       27599       30145    20458777+  bf  Solaris
/dev/sda3           30146       30394     2000092+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           30146       30394     2000061   82  Linux swap / Solaris

I also tried to mount the Nexenta partition from Linux, with no success:

Code:

root@ws-136:/# mkdir /aux
root@ws-136:/# mount -t ufs -o ro,ufstype=sunx86 /dev/sda2 /aux
mount: Not a directory

dmesg says:

Code:

[17180149.208000] ufs_read_super: fs needs fsck
[17180149.208000] init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (132275)

jlliagre · 09-22-2006, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikaelstaldal

Code:

# mkdir /aux

# mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s2 /aux
mount: I/O error
mount: Cannot mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s2

# mount /dev/dsk/c0d0p2 /aux
mount: I/O error
mount: Cannot mount /dev/dsk/c0d0p2

Okay, that can't work, neither s2 nor p2 point to a filesystem.
Try instead /dev/dsk/c0d0s0.

Quote:

I don't think so, Linux fdisk says:

Code:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       27598   221680903+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2   *       27599       30145    20458777+  bf  Solaris
/dev/sda3           30146       30394     2000092+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           30146       30394     2000061   82  Linux swap / Solaris

I also tried to mount the Nexenta partition from Linux, with no success:

Code:

root@ws-136:/# mkdir /aux
root@ws-136:/# mount -t ufs -o ro,ufstype=sunx86 /dev/sda2 /aux
mount: Not a directory

dmesg says:

Code:

[17180149.208000] ufs_read_super: fs needs fsck
[17180149.208000] init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (132275)

Same issue, that should be /dev/sda6 ...

Have a look at the Linux boot message, it should tell about the ufs partitions if it recognize them.

mikaelstaldal · 09-22-2006, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Okay, that can't work, neither s2 nor p2 point to a filesystem.
Try instead /dev/dsk/c0d0s0.

Code:

mount: /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 no such device

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlliagre

Same issue, that should be /dev/sda6 ...

Have a look at the Linux boot message, it should tell about the ufs partitions if it recognize them.

Code:

[17179576.136000] SCSI device sda: 488281250 512-byte hdwr sectors (250000 MB)
[17179576.136000] SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
[17179576.136000] SCSI device sda: 488281250 512-byte hdwr sectors (250000 MB)
[17179576.136000] SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
[17179576.136000]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 < sda5 >
[17179576.208000] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda