Raid EasyBCD 2.0 Ubuntu 9.10 & Windows

P

protivakid

Member
Hey,
So I tried following the Ubuntu specific guide but it is terribly outdated. I am trying to install Ubuntu 9.10 which supports dmraid to see my intel storage matrix raid built into the motherboard. I want to use EasyBCD and know I have to use the 2.0 beta to see the new Grub2.

I am doing so and according to the old guide you install the Ubuntu boot loader to the Ubuntu ex4 partition itself rather than the drive as a whole, however when I go back into windows and add grub 2 when trying to boot into Linux I get a bunch of text followed by a place to enter commands. When I try to type in "boot" I get an error about the Kernal not being loaded.

Is EasyBCD able to handle raid with linux like it does with my Windows 7 / XP dual boot? Please if possible give me a step by step solution.

Thanks in advance.

Addendum:

So I take it EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Build 93 and Ubuntu with dmraid using Grub 2 do not work together?
 
Last edited:
Easiest thing to do is, let Ubuntu do its thing during installation and than use startup repair if you want Window's bootloader in control of the boot. That way, the correct grub.conf is automatically generated for you and adding a new entry with EasyBCD to boot Ubuntu should work properly.
 
Computer Guru said:
Is this hardware RAID0 or Software?
Click to expand...

It's built onto the motherboard so based upon what I've read its software raid emulating hardware raid. It's not a pci or pcie raid card and its not something set up within the operating system. It's on the board itself (Asus P6T Deluxe V2).

I think I would have to delete and then rebuild another raid NOT using the 2 disk's max space so that I could have a partition outside of the raid or get a 3rd drive correct?
 
Motherboard RAID isn't really RAID - it's not any different from the RAID that would be set up with mdadm on Ubuntu - except that one will let you RAID0 single partitions.

e.g.

Drive1: /boot, /, SWAP
Drive2: <empty>, /, SWAP

And while a md device (software RAID) is configured for / and SWAP, /boot would not be synchronized between the two drives
 
Computer Guru said:
Motherboard RAID isn't really RAID - it's not any different from the RAID that would be set up with mdadm on Ubuntu - except that one will let you RAID0 single partitions.

e.g.

Drive1: /boot, /, SWAP
Drive2: <empty>, /, SWAP

And while a md device (software RAID) is configured for / and SWAP, /boot would not be synchronized between the two drives
Click to expand...

So I am correct in saying, at least now anyways, EasyBCD will not work with this? I just didn't want to use grub2 which I know will work with my motherboard's "RAID," but if EasyBCD can't do this yet I'll have to or wait for a future version of BCD.
 
Old trick might work? c:\mbr-grub.bin=grub in boot.ini

In the old win-xp days, you could keep the windows boot loader as follows. No idea if equivalent works with vista/win7 and neogrub, but it might be worth a try.

1. During linux install, choose advanced options and instead of having grub install in /dev/sda tell it to install in /dev/sdaN where N is partition with /boot and /boot/grub. In example below, let's say that ubuntu mounts /dev/sda3 as root with /boot in this partition.

2. When linux install finishes, do NOT reboot yet. (If you forget, boot from a cd). Copy the grub-mbr to a 512 meg file as root, using the sda3 example (you would need to use the right /dev/sdaN for your setup... gparted is your friend).

# dd if=/dev/sda3 of=/tmp/mbr-grub.bin bs=512 count=1

If you let the linux installer put grub on the boot-sector of the hard-drive, instead of the /boot partition, then try this:

2a. dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/mbr-grub.bin bs=512 count=1 (After doing other steps you might be able to replace grub with windows boot-loader, but I'm not sure that the menu item in step 4 will work. I know it works if grub installs to a numbered partition).

3. Copy the 512-byte mbr-grub.bin file to the c:\mbr-grub.bin in windows (via usb-stick or network or mount -t ntfs-3g).

4. Edit c:\boot.ini and add this line and set the time to wait to at least 3 or 4 seconds.

c:\mbr-grub.bin=grub

The above line acts similar to the way "chainloader" does in grub.
Now when you reboot the pc, you should be able to choose "GRUB" and get to the grub menu items.
You can even chainload back to the windows boot menu.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top