[SATLUG] Debian Etch MDs

[Ernest de Leon]

Guys for some reason I am having a hell of at time setting up a server, and
I am stuck.  I purchased two different servers and set one up a few weeks
ago.  This week, I have been trying to set the other one up, and for some
reason it keeps getting stalled at 5% where it is installing software.  I
believe the problem has something to do with not being able to write to the
SATA discs.  Here's the background....The server is an a 1U with a TYAN
board Opteron 200 series, 8GB of ram, and a built in 4 port hot swappable
SATA controller.  The BIOS and Debian recognize everything properly.  Since
this is a 64bit dual core proc, I am installing Etch AMD64.  There are 4
seagate hard drives installed, 2 80gb, and 2 500gb.  What I am trying to do
is mirror the 80gb drives as the main OS drives, and use the 500gb as
mirrored storage.  I have tried many different configurations with respect
to partitioning the 80gig drives such as separate partitions for /, /boot
and /swap, to everything in between.  I formatted the partitions as RAID
partitions on the 80gb drives, then turned each matching pair into a
mirrored device, then formatted the MDs as I needed.  No matter what, the
installation hangs at the same spot.  I checked the server I put together a
few weeks ago, and it seems to be set up the same way, and I can't remember
for the life of me what I did last time.  I do remember having a problem
last time, tweaking a little, and it working, but this one will not.  These
two boxes are the exact same hardware, and exact same OS.  I'm sure someone
has run into this before and knows how to get around it, and I would
appreciate some help.

Thanks,
One Frustrated Admin
-- 
# Ernest De Leon

"If Microsoft is 'flexible' it explains how their head got where it is."