Description of problem: In an everything install from scratch on a box with raid devices, anaconda creates an mdadm.conf that contains lines such as: ARRAY /dev/md0 superminor=0 However, mdadm expects a dash in super-minor, according to the mdadm.conf.rpmnew file created during the install. I've actually seen warnings/errors from mdadm related with this unknown superminor keyword, so I know the sample config file has correct comments, and the anaconda-generated lines are wrong. Personally, I'd prefer anaconda to append such lines to the mdadm-installed conf file, instead of installing them upfront and forcing mdadm to install its sample config file as .rpmnew. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): anaconda-10.0.2-2 How reproducible: Always
Fixed in CVS. And I can't just append it to the mdadm.conf in the package because the mdadm.conf needs to be there before packages get installed. Doug -- have any thoughts about making the /etc/mdadm.conf in the package be /etc/mdadm.conf.sample (or some such) instead? Or even in /usr/share/doc?
Does it have to be there *while* packages are installed? If not, you could put it in, do whatever you need to do with it, then remove it before installing packages, and then append the data at the end. With the current arrangement, the `MAILADDR root', that should be in the default mdadm.conf, isn't.
Yes, it has to be there for the %post of other packages. Added MAILADDR to the mdadm.conf I write out.
Hmm... Wouldn't it be nicer to take the .rpmnew file created by the installation of mdadm, appending an `# anaconda-generated bits follow' header and the contents anaconda generates, and then install that as mdadm.conf at the end? Then, if mdadm gets different defaults, you don't have to modify anaconda at all.
Here's another idea: since you have mdadm (the binary) in the install (runtime) image, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have the corresponding mdadm.conf in there as well, and copy it to the install tree before appending the lines you want to add?
The typo is fixed, but the creation of mdadm.conf.rpmnew in a fresh install is still annoying. Adjusting the summary.
mdadm.conf is now not included in the mdadm package (thanks Doug)
Unfortunately the way it was taken out of the mdadm.conf package means machines that update to the newer mdadm without anaconda (or maybe even with an upgrade) end up without a mdadm.conf. This doesn't seem to be a problem for me, but I suppose if you don't get raid brought up by initrd, you won't get it brought up later either.
So, what is the point of having an anaconda-created mdadm.conf? Mine looks like this: # mdadm.conf written out by anaconda DEVICE partitions MAILADDR root ARRAY /dev/md5 super-minor=5 [...] and it looks like the only effect of this file is to trigger a warning from mdadm when mdmonitor starts, like this: mdadm: only specify super-minor once, super-minor=5 ignored. mdadm: ARRAY line /dev/md5 has no identity information. if I remove all ARRAY lines from /etc/mdadm.conf, I don't get this warning, mdmonitor does monitor all arrays I have, and they're all properly brought up at boot time. So how about we stop anaconda from generating such a useless, warning-generating file?
In general, mdadm is designed to run without a config file fairly easily. If you choose to have a config file and put in array lines, then they are really only meaningful if you are going to tie the UUID of the array to a super-minor so that a specific array always has the same minor number. A more appropriate line for the generated mdadm.conf file would be something like: ARRAY /dev/md5 UUID=34f4efec:bafe48ef:f1bb5b94:f5aace52 This will uniquely identify the array and make sure if gets the right /dev/md number. However, this brings up a second issue. With the current md implementation, it's possible to have partitionable arrays (which I would like, that way you can do something like make multipath arrays partitionable by default, use the whole disk device for the source devices, then put the partition table on the md device, and as long as you don't let another OS create partition table entries that go to the end of the drive everything will work hunky dory, and if you want to get around that then you could make multipath md devices all have non-persistent superblocks, we could detect the multipath devices at initrd time, and create partitionable md devices from those devices). Anyway, the mdadm package no longer creates an /etc/mdadm.conf file, so that's not an issue. I agree that the current ARRAY lines don't mean much, so unless you are going to bother putting UUID or devices= or auto= entries on the lines, you might as well skip them. Bouncing to Anaconda owner since this is outside the scope of mdadm.
Since this has evolved down to not liking the anaconda generate mdadm.conf ARRAY lines, marking as a dup of 136051. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 136051 ***