Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any Linux Mint users here?

This is dealing with install on a software driven RAID like yours.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/479265/trying-to-install-linux-distro-on-raid-1

Excerpt

RAID-0 stripes your data across multiple drives and is worse than no RAID at all from a reliability perspective because if one drive fails, the entire array becomes inaccessible and that's why Ubuntu refuses to mount boot on a RAID-0 array.

RAID-1 protects your drives by mirroring 2 drives and writing to both at once (slower than no RAID) and reading from both at once (faster).

As the hardware RAID of your RAID Controller does not seem to be recognised by Ubuntu (Probably because it's a BIOS Fake RAID), your only other option is to use a software RAID and this has some disadvantages:

No Dual boot with another OS (as the software RAID is OS specific)
All of the RAID processing is done by the system’s CPU instead of the Hardware RAID Controller
Disk replacement when the RAID fails needs an of-line backup of the configuration data.
Needs a backup and a restore of the UEFI partition that came with the machine as you're going to wipe both drives.

There’s also a specific procedure for setting up Linux with the RAID.

Thanks Swifty!! I'll check that out for sure!!! Thanks for all the help! Appreciate it!

Long time Linux user here. Red Hat and I don't know how many others. Been using Mint for many years installed on XP machines and I guess all later systems also. I have enjoyed Mint but try other distributions on occasion. I keep coming back to Mint for friends and relatives who are windowed out. I did see somewhere last week that Microsoft admitted they run Linux on their servers. For what it is worth. I think once you get it running you will regret waiting so long.
Kind regards
pavementends

Thanks! Reminds me of 25 years ago. I was having trouble with windows and decided I never called Microcrap and used their tech support. So I gave them a call. After about 45 minutes on the phone with a fella he was having trouble with his computer looking up possible solutions. I asked if they were running windows on their machines. He replied "of course" at which I laughed and said "well that's your problem, would have thought you guys would know better"! He hung up! lol

I ran Mint live yesterday for a long while just to do more than a quick peek at it. Computer locked up after a few hours just like it does with windows! Makes me think it's been a hardware issue all along! I seem to remember running across a memory checker on my machine so I guess I'll start there. My video card (Nvidia geforce rtx 3060) also has 12gb of ram on it and I wonder if the memory checker (when I find it again) will also check that!

Sure wish Microcrap was still supporting NT 4 Workstation! Best OS I ever saw. Bullet proof! But the gamers complained cause NT 4 workstation wouldn't run a lot of games. The OS wouldn't allow direct access to hardware. Sorta like a traffic cop that controlled traffic!

Anyway I feel kinda bad as I probably should be spending what time I have with the family instead of this damn computer but a computer has been such a large part of my life it's hard to walk away from it! Still amazed at the things one can see and learn from all over the world without ever leaving your desk!

You might try installing Psensor while you have the linux live image running.
Its very simple with easy interface. At least you can see how hot things are running and fan speeds etc.

From terminal type "htop", that will show you mem and cpu useage.

If your MB has onboard graphics maybe uninstall video card and try again?

Good luck!

You probably have an option to run Memtest instead of booting Mint. It's pretty aggravating to figure out hardware problems are the issue!

Even if you don't install Linux on this box I'd suggest you find a generic clunker and experiment with it.

Thinking about your setup made me remember a computer I parted out a while back. XPS Dell with Core I7, lots of memory and good specs but I could not get it to boot. Among the surprises was a little SSD on the motherboard. I think I saved that ssd somewhere. It was sent to the community recycle place after someone gave up on it. I kinda regret not keeping it around and working on it more but I have plenty of spares! LOL

Yep, GS can probably use the win tools quicker.

Helped a friend of a friend with a box that came with intel optane set up, it appears that RAID is a requirement for optane to work? Didn't fool with any of that stuff on that particular box and no attempt to install linux.

I think GS worked on his problem child all night.....he might be down some today!

No computer expert here, but have been able to install Linux Mint on both desktop and laptop with success - and much the better for that.

EXACTLY! lol It seems once a problem gets hold of me I just can't let go! I once spent 2 weeks (at 56 hrs a week) trying to find a software issue on a machine I designed the controls for. My first one designing by myself. I got so twisted up not being able to fix it I lost 40 lbs in that 2 weeks! lol Finally I got a little help from an engineer. Turns out the start of cycle was identical to the end of cycle. My tooling and robots would run in automatic just once and stop! Took the guy all of 10 minutes to add a line of code and fix it!

I think I'm gonna like it a lot once I get it installed instead of running live!

Yes! I ran the Microcrap mem test. Told me I had to reboot so it could run (makes sense since the ram isn't clogged up with services and lousy programming) but I fell asleep before it finished! lol When i woke up it was booted into windows with no report that I could find! lol guess I'll have to run it again when I'm not so tired!

Sounds a lot like the Dell machine I have! Opend the box yesterday and also looking for the SSD. Was a little lost as the darn video card took up all the extra slots. Finally I saw the SSD mounted in the middle of the motherboard! lol Surprised the heck out of this old man! To be honest, I kinda miss fighting with these kinds of things! (must be crazy) I used to love working on machines as long as it was someone else's!! I believe I will be dragging out that old HP I have around here and loading it up if this computer beats me! Just gotta find some room to work on it and run it!!! lol

Thanks!! I'll try that next time I'm gonna run Mint live. I do have a program called Speccy and that gives me temps also! When the problem first started, I thought the processor was overheating (even though I didn't seem to be overworking the machine at all). You guys are a wealth of info!! Thanks so much! I sure appreciate it!!!

ALSO, Swifty posted a very good link about dual booting Mint with a raid SSD! answered most questions. Can be done by competent techs but look a little to complicated for me! lol I have a couple options floating around my head!!

That’s exactly why I got out of IT and went to working on PLC’s. My last IT job was setting up a SCADA system for a water utility. 5 years, 350 screens and 75,000 points. Running on NT.
Now to your particular problem, your SSD according to Kingston is not RAID specific. According to Dell that machine has RAID for the purpose of speed in data processing for gaming. Tests I have read show a 5-10% increase in data transfer using RAID.
So if desired you can wipe the drive and repartition but doing so will delete the specific software to use the RAID. Also voids all warranties. By getting rid of the RAID you will be able to run dual boot if so desired or you can try installing LINUX and getting the RAID to work using LINUX software.

Next, hang ups and lock ups most generally are driver conflict issues.

Good luck.

Thanks Swifty! Very good info!! I'm almost convinced I want to get another SSD to replace what I have and setup that way! I'm hoping the speed difference isn't much and won't be noticeable in my daily ramblings! I really don't play games much but have to admit I love running Serious Sam 4 once in a while and blasting aliens!! lol

The driver conflict seems like it would be quite difficult to find! I'll be keeping that in my pea brain also!

Sure appreciate your time and effort Swifty!!! Thanks a lot! If ya don't mind my asking, what are ya doing on plc's?? I really miss designing tooling for the big three. I was lucky really. I was a pipefitter building tooling in a shop run by Modern Eng.. An eng. outfit that serviced the big three in numerous ways. Anyway my leader in the piping dept. knew I was good on computers and when we ran out of work they sent me to engineering to update print changes made on the floor. I couldn't believe my luck! They didn't want me going somewhere else so off to eng. I went. I ended up staying 5 years and being classified as an electrical engineer level 3 (lowest level) and I had NO college!! Well except a couple of intro to computers class when I first got a machine at home!

Interested in knowing what plc's are being used for these days beside building cars and trucks! lol

The water system actually got me into it, The ozone units used to treat river water were controlled by Allen Bradley units, all the standard filter units were GE Fanuc which controlled all the valve positions, level and flow. All well pumps, reservoirs were controlled remotely by radio tied into GE Fanuc units. Everything was controlled in one room.
After that I worked at a cosmetics plant setting up new Omsso plastic bottle silk screen printers. That biotch we couldn’t talk to. It was a Siemens from Italy and a mudderfugger to work on. The engineer we called in from Sweden was really cussing. At the same time we were putting AB’s on the filler/cappers, box makers and batchers.
Then went to work for a major pet food producer working on high speed canning lines, packagers, shrink wrappers, conveyors and also got farmed out to sub contractors and other companies when I wasn’t needed at the plant.

There’s not much out there that isn’t run by a PLC, even your car.

COOL! When I was working in it, GM made it pretty easy! They of course had tons of machines running and each and every one was programmed by a different person. When it was time to work on those machines a guy had to be pretty good to figure out what some other fella had in mind when he programmed it! So GM came up with what they called Lean Design and had a canned software package for doing their tooling. It was pretty simple (even I could use it) and it reduced down time in the plants much less as many folks could use and understand it.

I always wanted to design and build a house run on a PLC. Inputs from all doors and windows, locks for all doors and windows etc, etc! Sure wish I could have stayed in it for a few more years. First job I had I thought was going to be a career! Now I'm lucky if I can tie my boots!!! lol