Installing Linux to fakeRAID 0

I've been trying without luck to install Mandriva 2009 on my Sager NP9262 (Clevo D901c). The problem is that Linux doesn't recognize my fakeraid setup and so only sees my three separate drives. I could just take the system out of fakeRAID and have Linux manage it with software RAID, but that would nuke the Windows XP installation I already have (which I'd rather not do if I don't have to). So does anyone know of any way to get Linux to recognize my fakeRAID? I've considered slipstreaming a liveCD with the appropriate drivers, but am having difficulty finding any tools to make the Linux slipstream, and also can't even find the Linux drivers for my specific laptop's fakeRAID setup. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!

 

You need the devicemapper, and mdadm for it to recognize the RAID array. Linux will still see the seperate drives, but you will be able to access the array through /dev/mapper/arrayUUID.

 

You should only need to load a program called dmraid in order to see the FakeRAID array correctly. It should do all of the work setting up your devicemapper for you when you load it. Rather than slipstreaming, which is a Window's thing, many Linux distros have methods of loading this for you when you do an installation.

This howto describes the process for Ubuntu. This howto, describes the process for Gentoo, although it's a bit dated. According to the latest Gentoo installation document, dmraid is automatically loaded, so it's not necessary to boot the kernel with dodmraid anymore. Regardless it's still a good read to understand the overall process. Finally, here's one for SUSE, as well. If you want to use a different distro, you should visit the user forums for the specific distro, and ask how one can load dmraid during the installation process.

My recommendation would be that you in fact install Ubuntu, if you want to do this. The biggest reason is that the most recent version of Ubuntu seems to provide support for the Alternate Install CD recognizing a FakeRAID setup out of the box;

BTW, you should absolutely, completely, totally, back up your Windows system, and burn or have whatever recovery CDs you need, in order to restore your system to the factory installed image, BEFORE you do any of these.

Good Luck..

 

Yes you just pass dmraid=true to the Ubuntu or Debian installer's boot arguments (hit Tab at the boot screen)... I don't know how it works for other distros but I run dmraid on my ASUS G50V with Debian.