Bug 196613

Summary:	Built system is not bootable from MBR boot loader
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	David K. Means <means>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	Anaconda Maintenance Team <anaconda-maint-list>
Status:	CLOSED CANTFIX	QA Contact:	Mike McLean <mikem>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	5	CC:	wtogami
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2006-06-26 14:44:31 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description David K. Means 2006-06-26 00:13:08 UTC

Description of problem:
Installer produces a perfectly valid system that is inaccessible
to GRUB, on account of BIOS (even LBA) not being able to retrieve
config file.  This leads to a 3-hour turnaround time before a usable
installation can be built.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
100%.  But it requires a target disc with non-Linux partition using up
the first 2GB of space.  This is pretty easy to do with a 40GB dis.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Use a 1999 BIOS (lots of them still around)
2.  Fill first 2GB with FAT partition
3.  Build Fedora Core 5, letting it take default actions about disc space
assignment.
  
Actual results:
GRUB>
does not boot
GRUB> root (hd0,0)
Error 15 (I think)

Expected results:


Additional info:

Comment 1 Jesse Keating 2006-06-26 00:47:12 UTC

What did you do to fix this?  I'm not sure we can query the bios to see if it is
a 1999 bios as you say to work around it...

Comment 2 David K. Means 2006-06-26 03:43:21 UTC

I was lazy, so to get around this, I deleted all the partitions on the disc,
and created /boot first, so that it would be addressable (no matter how small
the LBA field was).  I recommend that, when the installer comes up with a place
to put the GRUB config file, it check the block address by asking the BIOS to
seek there, and see if an error comes back.  This would save the unsuspecting
user from having to spend three hours wading through all the build screens (and CDs)
before discovering that the system would be unbootable.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Comment 3 Jesse Keating 2006-06-26 13:20:12 UTC

Moving over to anaconda.  Not sure if this is doable.

Comment 4 Jeremy Katz 2006-06-26 14:44:31 UTC

Unfortunately, there's no reliable way to do this -- we used to actually try to
check but there were at least as many false hits as actual helpful ones.  And
given that it's not a problem for modern BIOS'es (which still trigger the false
hit in some cases), keeping the code around was causing more problems than help.