I just installed Mind 14 fresh (MATE, 64bit edition), on an existing software RAID1 partition. The install process went like this:
1. boot live cd;
2. install mdadm; run mdadm --assemble --scan;
3. start install process; select existing md partitions (one for root, v0.9x so that grub can see it/install on it and a separate one for home); format the root one and let it install everything fresh;
4. at "setting up documents" or something it throws an error (on the logs I saw python crashed due to not finding ~/.face folder) but says it can continue and it does;
5. at the end I select "continue testing" over reboot and perform the following steps:
6. sudo -i; cd /; for i in proc sys dev dev/pts; do mount --bind $i /target/$i; done; chroot /target; apt-get install mdadm; apt-get install --reinstall grub-pc
7. reboot
And now the problem:
The system boots but enters what it seems an infinite loop and never gets out of it. Hitting ESC, shows the following:
it waits for ~30 seconds, then displays the same thing again. And it keeps of cycling this over and over. I stayed once (tried it multiple times, same thing) for 3 minutes and it displayed the same thing like 5 or 6 times. It never gets past it. It does respond to Ctrl+Alt+Del and reboots nicely though.fsck from util-linux 2.20.1
fsck from util-linux 2.20.1
/dev/md1: clean, 175530/525200 files, 938186/2099184 blocks
/dev/md3: clean, 308716/3139584 files, 4920305/12553966 blocks
* Starting bluetooth daemon [ OK ]
* Starting CUPS printing spooler/server [ OK ]
* Starting Samba Auto-reload Integration [ OK ]
Here is an excerpt from syslog
As you can see it matches what's in boot - load bluetooth, load ppdev which is related to CUPS and then load nothing else for 2 minutes (during which time it displayed the same bluetooth + cups + samba messages) until it shuts off due to Ctrl+Alt+Del.Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.457927] sd 6:0:0:0: >Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.458994] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.459502] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] Write Protect is off
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.459504] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.459997] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] No Caching mode page present
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.459998] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.462547] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] No Caching mode page present
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.462549] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.463180] sdc: sdc1
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.476330] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] No Caching mode page present
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.476333] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.476335] sd 6:0:0:0: >[sdc] Attached SCSI disk
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 3.539056] EXT4-fs (md1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 4.132596] Adding 4808700k swap on /dev/sda6. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:4808700k
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 4.901871] EXT4-fs (md1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 4.956237] EXT4-fs (md3): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 5.927159] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.132027] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.132042] NET: Registered protocol family 31
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.132044] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.132046] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.132047] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.132051] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.136818] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.136822] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.136823] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.145806] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.147633] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.147634] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
Nov 23 22:00:10 t420 kernel: [ 6.167770] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
Nov 23 22:02:26 t420 kernel: Kernel logging (proc) stopped.
Nov 23 22:02:26 t420 rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="5.8.6" x-pid="502" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] exiting on signal 15.
Booting the live CD works like a charm (I'm using it to write this post...). This is not my first Mint install, I'm a happy Mint user since version 11 I think (at the time when Ubuntu made its distro truly umbearable). I use software raid ever since I can remember (been a Linux user for 12 years now) and anyway, booting from the raid partition does not seem to be a problem. I just have no clue what to try next (other than reverting to Mint 13 which worked like a charm). Any hints are greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Alex