Grub does not detect partitions above 1TB.

[atolboo]

During my search for a replacement for my current Pardus OS I detected the following problem with Grub of PCLOS.
I get the following response when a boot item in /boot/grub/menu.lst to a partition, situated above 1TB from the beginning of the HDD, is selected:

root (hd0,8)
Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS
Press any key to continue...

The menu entry is

title PCLinuxOS sda9
root (hd0,8)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

The used hardware is a ASUS P5QLD PRO with the latest 0601 bios + Samsung Spinpoint F4 EG HD204UI, 2TB.
The system partition of /boot/grub/menu.lst is situated at sda3.
Result of fdisk -l is

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0001b8d9

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    39825407    19912672+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2        81780736  3907029167  1912624216    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3   *    39825408    79650815    19912704   83  Linux
/dev/sda5       127014912   127625215      305152   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       127627264  1847818239   860095488   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        81784832   127012863    22614016   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8      3743371264  3825115135    40871936   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      3825117184  3907029167    40955992   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

/dev/sda1 contains (for testing purpose) Pardus and when I set MBR to grub of Pardus, according to this manual, there is no problem and PCLOS at /dev/sda9 boots without any problem.
Menu item in /boot/grub/menu.lst of Pardus and PCLOS are equal.
Both Pardus and PCLOS use the GRUB Legacy boot loader.
Build files for Pardus and thus the used patches are here.
Any idea and help how to solve this problem is welcome.
Or is this maybe in bug in Grub of PCLOS
Mageia has the same problem.

[Just17]

Have you written Grub to the MBR to use the PCLOS menu.lst and tested that option?


You probably have, but I did not notice it posted .....

[atolboo]

I have writen both Pardus and PCLOS grub to MBR of hd0 and performend the test.
Selecting is with root (hd0,0) in Pardus and root (hd0,2) in PCLOS.
And writing is with setup (hd0).

[Just17]

I have writen both Pardus and PCLOS grub to MBR of hd0 and performend the test.
Selecting is with root (hd0,0) in Pardus and root (hd0,2) in PCLOS.
And writing is with setup (hd0).

Thanks.

Just to clarify ....  is the PCLOS version on sda3 the latest release or is the latest one on sda9?

Just want to clarify that the latest set of files are being used when PCLOS is in control.

Also wonder if using the files on sda9 and installing Grub with sda9 as root would make any difference.

[atolboo]

Both are 2012.08 and further info will come later as I have my    at this moment.

[atolboo]

Further results:
Booting from Pardus-/dev/sda1 into PCLOS-/dev/sda9 I get:

   GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,0)
 (hd0,2)

grub>

Despite (hd0,8) not being shown I did:

grub> root (hd0,8)

Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS

grub>

Booting into Pardus-/dev/sda1 results in:

         Pardus Linux (http://www.pardus.org.tr), TUBITAK/UEKAE
 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,0)
 (hd0,2)
 (hd0,7)
 (hd0,8)

grub> root (hd0,8)

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,8)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub>

After this a boot into PCLOS-/dev/sda9 results in:

GRUB Loading stage1.5.
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 18

And only a repair via Pardus Install-USB can repair the system in order to get it up and running again.

Another test was moving sda8 and sda9 (with GParted on Parted Magic-USB) in steps from <2TB to 1.5TB  to 1.2TB and to slightly bellow 1TB.
The problems are gone slightly bellow 1TB.
Also a test on a Asrock-P5B-DE gives the same result as on the ASUS P5QLD PRO.
This is as far as my imagination goes about testing this issue

[Just17]

Your tests would appear to be covering most aspects of the problem.

I must see if I can find space to do a couple of tests here .....