Bug#287415: mdadm: degraded md devices not assembled on boot

[Mau]

martin f krafft wrote:
> also sprach Mau <mavog at hotmail.com> [2006.07.24.2138 +0100]:
>> Assembling RAID array md0...done (already running).
> 
> Mh, why only md0? This is past the initrd stage...

Yes, that's _after_ initrd.

My problem is that if I let the initrd assemble all the arrays I get
those fake error messages; in this way the system boots perfectly, even
if an entire drive is missing.

But you know how do these things go... I'd prefer to deliver this server
without the need to explain why those messages are shown and what they
really mean. And this is a good chance to learn something and maybe to
help solving some issue.

So I tried to assemble only the root partition in initrd, so that the
system could boot: the system booted perfectly when both drives were
present and healthy (mdadm-raid assembled correctly all the remaining
arrays) and those messages disappeared. But if a drive was missing the
result was what I reported.

In that very condition, with only 1 drive connected and initrd stage
assembling enabled only for /dev/md0, the only message I got in initrd
from scripts/local-top/mdadm was:

mdadm: /dev/md0 has been started with 1 drive (out of 2)

Since this appeared to me just correct, I thought that probably it was
not so meaningful; so I restarted the box without "break=mount" and
reported the output that followed the initrd (always in the same condition).

> [...]
> Would it be much trouble for you to repeat the process and run
> 
>   sh -x /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
> 
> this time, and paste the output in an email to me?

No problem until I'll have that box here: I'll do that tomorrow.

> [...]
> Is this a production machine? The reason I am asking is because it
> would be a lot easier for me if you could give me root access, but
> of course I understand that's only rarely possible...

No, this machine is _not_yet_ in production; I'd like to give you root
access, but my ISP puts all of it's customers behind NAT.
Let's try without: if we can't solve I'll try to find a way to give you
access.

Thanks!

Mau