[Bug 1335642] [NEW] mdadm runs into infinite loop and prevents initrd/initramfs phase to finish on boot

[vak]

Public bug reported:

Hi all,

probably the issue is caused by changing the SATA-port where RAID disks
were originally attached -- this is the only thing that happened before
my Ubuntu 14.04 (kernel-3.13.0-27) became unbootable.


During the boot the OS runs into infinite loop reporting from time to time these:

incrementally starting raid arrays
mdadm: Create user root not found 
mdadm: create group disk not found 
incrementally started raid arrays

Since mdadm is in initrd image, I don't even know how to skip mdadm --
workarounds are very welcome, please!

For example, renaming /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf in initrd image didn't help,
mdadm then just repeats infinitely without group/user-related errors:

incrementally starting raid arrays
incrementally started raid arrays
incrementally starting raid arrays
incrementally started raid arrays
...

Disks are successfully assembled into a RAID under LiveCD Ubuntu 13 (yes
, i have only old CD here)

Why I consider this a bug? because my RAID-array is needed at
application level, not on OS-level (e.g. it is not mounted as / or
/boot). So, if one can't boot into OS it is a serious bug. Last but not
least, I was never choosing to put mdadm into initramfs, so it is a
decision taken by default that leads to not-bootable system...

** Affects: mdadm (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1335642

Title:
  mdadm runs into infinite loop and prevents initrd/initramfs phase to
  finish on boot

Status in “mdadm” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Hi all,

  probably the issue is caused by changing the SATA-port where RAID
  disks were originally attached -- this is the only thing that happened
  before my Ubuntu 14.04 (kernel-3.13.0-27) became unbootable.

  
  During the boot the OS runs into infinite loop reporting from time to time these:

  incrementally starting raid arrays
  mdadm: Create user root not found 
  mdadm: create group disk not found 
  incrementally started raid arrays

  Since mdadm is in initrd image, I don't even know how to skip mdadm --
  workarounds are very welcome, please!

  For example, renaming /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf in initrd image didn't
  help, mdadm then just repeats infinitely without group/user-related
  errors:

  incrementally starting raid arrays
  incrementally started raid arrays
  incrementally starting raid arrays
  incrementally started raid arrays
  ...

  Disks are successfully assembled into a RAID under LiveCD Ubuntu 13
  (yes , i have only old CD here)

  Why I consider this a bug? because my RAID-array is needed at
  application level, not on OS-level (e.g. it is not mounted as / or
  /boot). So, if one can't boot into OS it is a serious bug. Last but
  not least, I was never choosing to put mdadm into initramfs, so it is
  a decision taken by default that leads to not-bootable system...

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