Gentoo 2005.1 Software RAID (part 3)

Picking up with part 7c after compiling the kernel. Now you need to install your kernel into the boot partition. Change the "2.6.12-Sep2005" portion of the filenames to whatever you want.

# cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.12-Sep2005
# cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.12-Sep2005
# cp .config /boot/config-2.6.12-Sep2005

If you are using LVM2, you will need to add a line at the end of the autoload file to automatically load the LMV2 module. Note that you may also need to add a line for DHCP support (not 100% sure about that). Since I'm using these boxes for servers with static IPs I don't concern myself with it.

# echo 'dm-mod' >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
# cat /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

Time to configure the "/etc/fstab" file. There are pages full of documentation on what goes in this file and the handbook covers some of it. For my VIA EPIA box with only 3 partitions, my fstab file is going to be rather simple.

# nano -w /etc/fstab

/dev/md0 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/md2 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/md1 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,ro,user 0 0

#/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0

For my Celeron box which is using LVM2 partitions, it's more complex.

# nano -w /etc/fstab

/dev/md0 /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/md2 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/md1 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,ro,user 0 0

#/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0

/dev/vgmirror/opt /opt ext3 noatime 0 3
/dev/vgmirror/usr /usr ext3 noatime 0 3
/dev/vgmirror/var /var ext3 noatime 0 3
/dev/vgmirror/home /home ext3 noatime 0 3
/dev/vgmirror/tmp /tmp ext2 noatime 0 3
/dev/vgmirror/vartmp /var/tmp ext2 noatime 0 3

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0

Now, some misc stuff (see networking configuration for information on setting up DHCP or static IPs):

# nano -w /etc/conf.d/hostname
# nano -w /etc/conf.d/domainname
# rc-update add domainname default
# nano -w /etc/conf.d/net
(either leave empty for DHCP or configure your IP and gateway)
# rc-update add net.eth0 default
# cat /etc/resolv.conf
(verify your DNS servers if you specified a static IP)
# nano -w /etc/conf.d/clock
(change CLOCK="UTC" to CLOCK="local")
# passwd
(set your root password to something you will remember)

# useradd -m -G users,wheel,audio -s /bin/bash john
# passwd john
(add a user called 'john' and set a password)

And a few other misc options (system logger, job scheduling):

# emerge syslog-ng
# rc-update add syslog-ng default
# emerge dcron
# rc-update add dcron default
# crontab /etc/crontab

I also like to install the "sshd" service at this point so that I can ssh into the box after the initial reboot. (These notes are based on a very old posting that I made about installing sshd on Gentoo Linux.) Alternately, you can do these commands after booting the box for the first time by logging in as root at the console.

# /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 2048 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key -N ""
(the key may take a few minutes to generate)
# chmod 600 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
# chmod 644 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
# rc-update add sshd default

Now it's time to install and configure "grub" (the boot loader). Note that where we are saying "/dev/hdc", you will need to change to match the name of your secondary mirror drive.

# emerge grub

(Now, at this point, I got an error at the end of the emerge because I had failed to mount my /proc file system before entering the chroot environment. The fix was easy, requiring me to exit the chroot environment, mount the /proc filesystem and then re-enter the chroot environment.)

# ls -l /boot
# nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

Contents of my grub.conf file:

# Which listing to boot as default. 0 is the first, 1 the second etc.
default 0
timeout 30

# Sep 2005 installation (software RAID, no LVM2)
title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.12 (Sep 22 2005)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-2.6.12-Sep2005 root=/dev/md2

Now I fire up grub and install it onto the MBR of both disks.

# grub --no-floppy
grub> find /grub/stage1
(hd0,0)
(hd1,0)
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> device (hd0) /dev/hdc
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

Time for the first reboot. Now you need to unmount everything that you can (including LVM) prior to reboot. Since I'm not using LVM2, this is rather simple.

livecd gentoo # exit
livecd / # cd /
livecd / # cat /proc/mounts
(gives you a list of what is mounted)
livecd / # umount /mnt/gentoo/boot
livecd / # umount /mnt/gentoo/proc
livecd / # umount /mnt/gentoo
livecd / # reboot

Pull the CD-ROM at this point, otherwise the LiveCD will probably boot. Then cross your fingers and watch the console for errors.