Author Topic: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem  (Read 13480 times)

R.M. Klippstein

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Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« on: October 22, 2015, 09:21:22 pm »
I'm trying to add a third hard drive to existing setup, this third drive is a WD500AKS. I can't install eCS-bII on it because of the problem with LVM not being able to be initiated because partitions on this new drive cannot be tagged as startable. I've tried everything I know of to get around this problem, but  – no luck. The latest thing I tried was using DFSee and creating a Primary partition as FAT32 and was able to tag is as startable, but then trying to install eCS to it resulted in the usual Failed to initialize Logical Volume Magament – Please close LVM.EXE – etc!
Hopefully someone knows how to cure this problem, Thanks for  any ideas.
  Ohh, by the way, I also tried removing the other H.D drives and tried to install to just the WD500AKS
and that didn't work either.

klipp

ivan

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2015, 12:23:20 am »
What motherboard and what are the other two drives?

You may be having a problem if the first two drives are ide and this is sata which may require you to check the bios and set the sata to legacy rather than ahci.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2015, 06:35:42 am »
It is likely that the drive geometry is invalid for OS/2. Use DFSEE to wipe the front end of the drive (make sure you get the right one), then reboot, and try LVM again. Once you get a valid geometry, and partition the drive using LVM, it should work.

mopar_guy

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2015, 04:36:36 pm »
I thought that a startable partition has to be on one of the first two physical disks.  If you initially had this set up as disk 3, the LVM has probably used a different disk geometry.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2015, 06:08:30 pm »
I thought that a startable partition has to be on one of the first two physical disks.  If you initially had this set up as disk 3, the LVM has probably used a different disk geometry.

I don't think the geometry changes, just because the disk is not one of the first two physical units (but I could be wrong). What likely happened is that the disk was shipped set by/for windows, which uses an incompatible geometry. If you don't wipe it, and let LVM initialize it from scratch, the geometry is not changed, and remains incompatible. Beside that, he said that he tried it as the only disk, which eliminates the "first two drives" possibility.

You must also remember that Air Boot doesn't use the concept of "startable". It is a program that loads from the MBR, and it handles up to 24 (if I remember correctly) partitions, no matter what physical disk they are on. The eCS installer knows about that. The old Boot Manager had it's own partition, and that needed to be startable, and on one of the first two physical disks.

R.M. Klippstein

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2015, 10:33:36 pm »
Hi ivan & Doug, This is turning out to be a REAL S.O.B:! First of all, this is on an AMD motherboard (Asus M4A88TD-v EVO/USB3) Drive #1 is WD6400 -Sata, 600gb, Drive #2 is Seagate ST3500413a -Sata, 500gb. The drive I'm trying to add as Drive #3 is WD5000AKS -Sata, 500gb.
  I wiped the drive like Doug said and then tried installing with just Drive's 1 & 3 connected  – no go said there was no partition on drive, I installed 2 partitions, using DFSee one OS2-LVM and a FAT 32, both installed an were usable from both Windoz & Linux. Then back to eCS install which crapped out with the “Failed to inialize Logical Volume Management- LVM.EXE –etc”. So next I Disconnected all drives and just connected the WD5000 and re-ran eCS install – same error! The next thing I'm going to do tomorrow is to try installing the WD500 on a Lenovo Desktop, it only has space for one H.D. So it will be a direct install from the eCS beta II CD.
  It looks to me that there are two different possibilities – The WD500 has problems (even though it works well with Windos & Linux or (God forbid) My ASUS has problems (it is a production machine!)
I guess I'll maybe know more tomorrow after I try it on the Lenovo.
Anybody got any further ideas?

Thanks  klipp

ivan

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2015, 11:33:57 pm »
All I can add is that we have heard of a few problems with the WD5000AKS installing Linux.  One of our clients had problems with one used as a replacement on one of their machines, nothing except windows would install on it so we replaced it with a Seagate Barracuda 500 Gb and gave the WD to one of my service guys for his son that is into gaming.

Not the sort of thing you want to hear, sorry.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2015, 12:40:51 am »
Quote
I wiped the drive like Doug said and then tried installing with just Drive's 1 & 3 connected  – no go said there was no partition on drive, I installed 2 partitions, using DFSee one OS2-LVM and a FAT 32, both installed an were usable from both Windoz & Linux.


Did you let the eCS installer fix the "no partition"problem", then reboot? After that, you should be able to use the installer (miniLVM) to build all of the partitions (don't even think about using windows, or Linux, to do that - even with DFSEE).

When you used DFSEE, was it booted to OS/2? If not, it will probably set the drive up as windows expects to find it, which is wrong for OS/2.

R.M. Klippstein

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2015, 05:59:36 pm »
Doug, The eCS installer never Fixes the "no partition" problem, I can only quit the attempted install. Supposedly eCS will install a basic partition, but it never does! This is what is causing the problem and I can't seem to figure out how to get eCS to setup that initial partition.
Thanks for the replies & help.

klipp

ivan

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2015, 07:18:55 pm »
Hi Klipp,

One last thought.  Have you tried using DFSee to make the partitions AND write the LVM info for each partition?

You could try setting up - for example - a 2Gb HPFS partition and use the remainder as a JFS volume.  In theory the installer should find those partitions and you should be able to let the installer format them.

Edit to add:  If my memory of the pictures I have seen of the eCS installer is correct then doing it this way cuts out the use of the mini LVM partitioning because the installer seeing a partitioned disk should offer those partitions in the 'where to install' page and also allow you to format them.

Also, if you use DFSee with all the drives in place you will be able to give the partitions on the drive consecutive drive letters that won't mess with what you already have.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2015, 07:35:07 pm by ivan »

Andi B.

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #10 on: October 24, 2015, 07:41:49 pm »
One thing that came to mind is I vaguely remember you can't install into a logical (JFS) partition if there is not at least one other primary partition on the drive. IIRC DFsee can setup the partitions that way but eCS can not install afterwards.

Another problem would be disks with 4k sectors. Such disk are not usable with OS/2. But is should be not a problem for you as 4k sector disks are usually > 1TB big. And the 2TB 4k disks I've seen does have a 512B sector compatibility mode.

Doug Bissett

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2015, 07:49:38 pm »
Doug, The eCS installer never Fixes the "no partition" problem, I can only quit the attempted install. Supposedly eCS will install a basic partition, but it never does! This is what is causing the problem and I can't seem to figure out how to get eCS to setup that initial partition.
Thanks for the replies & help.

klipp

It always has, for me (it is not a partition, it is simply the container for the partitions - LVM adds the partitions, now called volumes, later). The front of the disk must be wiped by DFSEE, then boot the eCS install DVD. It will eventually do a scan on the drive, and discover that there is nothing on it, then it will offer to fix the problem. Accept the offer, and it will tell you to reboot. Do so, and start the install from scratch. This time the disk check should be happy. Continue, and it should decide that there are no installable volumes, and it will open miniLVM. There, you make all of the partitions, and add the boot manager (which should install Air Boot). I recommend making only ONE primary partition, on the first drive, which would usually be used for windows. Make all of the rest of them logical, even on other physical disks. The next step will offer to format the selected boot drive. Do so (I highly recommend JFS). Then, format the rest of the eCS drives, before continuing.

It occurs to me, that there may be a BIOS setting that will block writing to the boot record (claiming to be an antivirus measure). Make sure that is off, or it won't allow DFSEE and miniLVM to write the updated data to the boot record.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #12 on: October 24, 2015, 08:30:16 pm »
...
Another problem would be disks with 4k sectors. Such disk are not usable with OS/2. But is should be not a problem for you as 4k sector disks are usually > 1TB big. And the 2TB 4k disks I've seen does have a 512B sector compatibility mode.

I'm using a 1 TB drive that has 4kb sectors, works fine as the drive hardware presents the sectors as 512b though it is helps to use something like dfsee to partition so the real 4kb sectors line up with the JFS 4kb file blocks.
I did have to wipe and repartition the drive and install airboot as bootmanager got really confused when I added the 1 TB drive.

R.M. Klippstein

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2015, 09:11:20 pm »
Hey Doug, I plugged the disk into the Lenovo and it worked just as you described. There is apparently something screwed up in my ASUS M4A88TD as it NEVER displays the screen saying "No installable volumes were found on you're system. The volume manager will now start" it goes to “Failed to inialize Logical Volume Management- LVM.EXE –etc”. instead. It never starts the Logical Volume Manager!
I don't see how this can be anything screwed up in either the Hard Drive or the eCS install CD !
Any ideas? I'm going "Brain Dead" over this!

Thanks, klipp

Dave Yeo

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Re: Can't install an additional Hard Drive -- LVM.EXE problem
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2015, 09:26:59 pm »
Possibly a driver issue, probably the AHCI driver but possibly even ACPI.
Can you update those and then put the drive back in your new box and test?