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Total physical memory not recognized, garbled video
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tsol
Junior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:45 am    Post subject: Total physical memory not recognized, garbled video Reply with quote

Hello

First time installer, and I'm really struggling to get this thing going.

Hardware setup:

ASUS E35M1-I (Mini ITX)
8G Ram
2x 3TB Hitachi (To be RAID1)
1x 160G WD Blue 2.5" (Boot)
Samsung DVDRW

After banging my head for a few hours trying to erase the GPT partitions on the boot drive (formerly in my Macbook) I finally figured out how to blow away the old Mac stuff and get SMS installed.

Once I'm in, though, I find that after the boot sequence and watching the text fly up the screen, I then get what looks like TV static and cannot do any keystrokes to drop to a prompt or anything. I am able to access the server through Webmin, but I was trying to setup RAID1, which the instructions on the Wiki only show how to do it from the console. I am assuming this is because this motherboard and chipset is bleeding edge new, so I'm assuming slack hasn't caught up yet, but I would be content with just seeing text and being able to finish configuring the machine...

In addition, when I look at the status of the machine, it does not show the total 8G Ram available - it only shows 2.58 GB. Is there some kind of built in limitation on this like WinXP?

Any help would be appreciated.
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gerasimos_h
Site Admin


Joined: 09 Aug 2007
Posts: 1757
Location: Greece

PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You install SMS which is 32bit , install SMS64 which is 64bit to take advantage of your 8GB RAM.

As for RAID setup, does M1 chipset support RAID? if it does, try to create a hardware RAID.

If you want a software RAID with mdadm the procedure is as simple as the wiki.
You should have /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc create the array with
Code:
mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

for status
Code:
mdadm -D /dev/md0

create a filesystem like
Code:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0

create the mount point e.g.
Code:
mkdir  /mnt/raid

edit /etc/fstab and add
Code:
/dev/md0  /mnt/raid  ext4   defaults 0  0


If you haven't use a generic kernel with RAID support upon installation, edit /etc/rc.d/rc.S and uncomment "RAID Assembly" lines.

If you can access your machine through ssh or webmin, your server is up, most likely your graphics controller isn't recognized.
You can use VNC if you really want to use KDE or try installing AMD proprietary drivers.

gerasimos_h

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http://sms.it-ccs.com
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tsol
Junior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok, I have reloaded the system with the 64bit version - memory is all good! Thanks for the help there.


Back to RAID1, when I reloaded, it now shows as /dev/md127.

A little history, I did initialize the array last night under the 32bit version through Webmin, which took about 9 hours.

This morning when I read your response is when I upgraded the system (formatting the boot device before doing so) and the result is the md127.


Is this something to be concerned about?


Can you speak to some of the IDE parameters and next steps for setting up RAID through Webmin? I'm assuming I have do create a partition, format as ext4, then somehow create mountpoints - but I'm a bit lost still.

Thanks for the quick responses.

tsol
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tsol
Junior Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the interest of time, I decided to reinitialize the RAID1 array to eliminate the md127 thing. It looks like it has something to do with one of the partitions having some residual data. Since this is a new install, I have the luxury of not worrying about data loss in doing this.


Although, through webmin, I would still like some advice on setting up the array beyond initial build as requested above.
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gerasimos_h
Site Admin


Joined: 09 Aug 2007
Posts: 1757
Location: Greece

PostPosted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you edit /etc/rc.d/rc.S you should have something like
Code:
# Re-assemble RAID volumes:
/sbin/mdadm -Es > /etc/mdadm.conf
/sbin/mdadm -S -s
/sbin/mdadm -As
# This seems to make the kernel see partitions more reliably:
fdisk -l /dev/md* 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null


The fdisk command fix the issue with md127, plus you can remove first line (/sbin/mdadm -Es > /etc/mdadm.conf) once you enter md0 array in mdadm.conf.

Proper way is to create a partition table for disks /dev/sdb /dev/sdc, to do that either use cfdisk like
cfdisk /dev/sdb
and choose new-> primary -> bootable -> write -> quit
or use webmin at
Webmin - > Hardware -> Partitions on local disks
IDE parameters are defaults.

If you still have problems with previous discovered md127 array try deleting it, and reset disks to non-raid array.
Code:
mdadm -Ss /dev/md127
mdadm --zero-superblock  /dev/sdb
mdadm --zero-superblock  /dev/sdc


To create a linux RAID from webmin just navigate to
Webmin -> Hardware -> Linux RAID
Choose RAID 1, select /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1 and press create.
Next select your raid array and create a filesystem. by default webmin offers jfs, which is a good choice for raid arrays, but you can use whatever you like.

To create a filesystem from terminal just type
mkfs.jfs /dev/md0 or mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0

Mount point, is a directory for mounting your array , like /mnt/raid , /mnt/mediaserver e.t.c.
To create the directory just type
Code:
mkdir -p /mnt/raid


Next add a line in /etc/fstab like
[device] [mount point] [filesystem ] [mountoptions] [dump] [fsck]
Code:
/dev/md0  /mnt/raid  ext4   defaults 1 2


You can also do that from webmin at
Webmin -> System -> Disk and network filesystems
but from terminal is easier and faster.

Once you done type
Code:
mdadm -Es > /etc/mdadm.conf

to enter RAID array in mdadm.conf.
Code:
ARRAY /dev/md/0 metadata=1.2 UUID=9b27d255:8d4398b6:6c601560:8fc924df name=sms:0


Reboot and if all goes well you will have yourRAID 1 array mounted in /mnt/raid and you will see a /dev/md0.

gerasimos_h

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http://sms.it-ccs.com
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