I used to use Ubuntu 12.04 Alternate installer to setup my old RAID1 + encryption system. With the new LTS 14.04 (beta 2) I found the alternate installer missing which complicates installation on a RAID1 a lot. Textbased installation doesn't work because it fails to autmatically setup Wifi.
My question is: How do you install Ubuntu Desktop on a software RAID 1 with encryption?
Here's what I tried:
Idea 1. Install on first hard disk and create RAID afterwards
Didn't work because "Disks" warns about erasing everything.
Idea 2. Use netboot installer
While in principal this would work (tested in a virtualmachine) I can't get my wireless interface to work. (A work around would be to setup a plain wired interface but right now I'd like to avoid setting something like this up.)
Idea 3. Use server installer
I also tested this in a virtualmachine but apparently there is no Desktop package available in the installer (which is available in netboot installer). I assume this can be installed afterwards from console but my fear is that I won't get the original Ubuntu Desktop experience. What are the differences between Desktop and Server+Desktop package? (Thread about server installation)
Idea 4. Create a RAID1 from unformatted disks and install on the RAID1
Installation works except for the last step which shows the error "can't install grub on /dev/md127p1". I also tried to install it on any other partition without success.
I also followed the tutorial mentioned in this thread but got stuck when I had to add the encryption partition.
- Format the /dev/md0 as crypto
- Wait for /dev/mapper/crypto1 to appear
- Format crypto1 with partition table
- Create ext4 partition
Btw: There is no option to create LVMs that the simple install option provides o_O
Idea 5: Use "Try Ubuntu" and run text installer
Does anyone know how to start the text installer from within the graphical live system?