# 9.1 upgrade refuses to start gmirror



## mariourk (Jan 5, 2013)

I installed my FreeBSD 9.0 root on a gmirror raid. For some reason, it will not start the gmirror after upgrading to 9.1 (or after the first reboot anyway. I still have to run _freebsd-update install_ a second time, after this reboot)

Image

When I start with a 9.0 live-dvd, it comes up just fine and all the data is there. _geom_mirror_load="YES"_ is in */boot/loader.conf*

Can somebody explain what goes wrong and how to fix this?


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## wblock@ (Jan 5, 2013)

One or more of the disks have old "hardware" Promise RAID metadata on them.  FreeBSD 9.1 has graid(8) in the GENERIC kernel, so it tries to use that old metadata.

Boot with FreeBSD 9.0, back up your data, then use the RAID BIOS to destroy that old metadata.  Or if you don't have that RAID controller any more, you may need to use graid(8) itself.  Failing all that, attaching the drive to a different controller could allow overwriting that metadata with zeros.

You may end up recreating the gmirror(8) afterwards and restoring from backups.  That is probably the safest way.


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## mariourk (Jan 5, 2013)

Thanks to some help from the #freebsd irc-channel, I managed to fix it.

Apparently the geom_raid driver is now standard in the kernel and started to mess up things with the gmirror raid, I'm using. Disableling geom_raid in */boot/loader.conf* solved the issue.


```
kern.geom.raid.enable=0
```

This thread describes the same problem.


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## wblock@ (Jan 5, 2013)

That metadata is still lurking there, hidden but waiting to surprise you at just the right time.  The right time for it, that is, not the right time for you.


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## mariourk (Jan 5, 2013)

The disks never where in any (software) raid setup before, except this gmirror. So, I think this metadata, that is confusing geom_raid, is in fact the gmirror metadata. I don't see any reason messing with it and risking the destruction of my entire gmirror. As long as geom_raid is disabled, I'm fine. And it also helps that I'm now aware of the problem.

For now, I'll keep it like this.


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## kpa (Jan 5, 2013)

Some disks may have been factory tested on a BIOS RAID set up and the metadata was not properly cleared when the disks were shipped. This assuming you got the disks as new.


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## beimak (Jan 18, 2013)

mariourk said:
			
		

> I installed my FreeBSD 9.0 root on a gmirror raid. For some reason, it will not start the gmirror after upgrading to 9.1 (or after the first reboot anyway. I still have to run _freebsd-update install_ a second time, after this reboot)
> 
> Image
> 
> ...



I have the same problem, when I run *mergemaster* it solved the problem, maybe in freebsd FreeBSD 9.1 some file is different.


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