Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop CD booted system could not mount internal harddisks attached to a RAID motherboard

[Lawrence Tsang]

Hi All,

     I have a computer system having 2 internal 250GB harddisks attached to
a RAID motherboard. I have not used the RAID feature and have just set the
two internal harddisks as independent IDE disks. This system works OK in a
Windows XP environment. I could see and use these 2 internal disks in such a
XP environment for at least 1 year.

     However, recently, when I boot my system using the Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop
CD in a cdrom, the CD boots normally into a workable Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop.
But I just could not use the above mentioned 2 internal harddisks.

     The following are some commands that I have run inside a root terminal
and the corresponding outputs :

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*root at ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa3dea3de

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       15201   122102001    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           15202       30401   122094000    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x43d850f0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 8029 MB, 8029470208 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 976 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1         976     7839698    b  W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdh: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x67df8048

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdh1               2       60801   488376000    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdh5               2       60801   488375968+   7  HPFS/NTFS
root at ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*root at ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda: TYPE="isw_raid_member"
/dev/sdb: TYPE="isw_raid_member"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="355E-514C" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdh5: UUID="A868C79E68C769A0" LABEL="500G_DISK" TYPE="ntfs"
root at ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Ubuntu 9.10 could list the 2 internal harddisks as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb.
But it could not list the partitions in these 2 disks as devices as follows
:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*root at ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# ls -l /dev/sd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,   0 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  16 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdb
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  32 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdc
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  48 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdd
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  64 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sde
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  80 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdf
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  96 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdg
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8,  97 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdg1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 112 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdh
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 113 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdh1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 117 2010-02-01 03:30 /dev/sdh5
root at ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     The 2 internal disks, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, are of type
"isw_raid_member" as listed by the "blkid" command. I think this is because
these disks are attached to the RAID motherboard and may have been treated
by Ubuntu 9.10 as RAID devices.

     I could use the other USB disks, sdg1 and sdh5, in a normal way.
(/dev/sdc is a 8G USB flash drive. I don't know why sdg1 is seen by "fdisk"
and "blkid" as sdc1)

     This picture happens for Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop. If I use Ubuntu 8.04.4
Desktop CD in a cdrom to boot my computer, I could use ALL my harddisk
normally.

     What should I do in order to use the 2 RAID attached disks in Ubuntu
9.10 Desktop ? Thanks for any suggestion.

Regards
Lawrence
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