Description of problem: grub cannot write BOOTRECORD into the partion - ends with Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): grub-0.97-13.5 How reproducible: always - independant of the redhat linux distribution seen also with fedora 12, rhel-6 but not with NOVELL linux distributions Steps to Reproduce: 1. write on a system (with dmraid?) in the extended partition a bootrecord to a partition 2. 3. Actual results: Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS Expected results: grub writes bootrecord to the partion Additional info: I have a similar system, where I have no problems to write a bootrecord to a partition ( partition nimber >= 5 ) grub on the system in trouble : [root@rx220a ~]# uname -a Linux rx220a 2.6.18-128.1.14.el5 #1 SMP Mon Jun 1 15:52:58 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux [root@rx220a ~]# rpm -qa | grep grub [root@rx220a ~]# grub Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. 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> device (hd0,1) /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeebp1 device (hd0,1) /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeebp1 grub> device (hd0) /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb device (hd0) /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb grub> root (hd0,1) root (hd0,1) Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 grub> device (hd0,10) /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeebp11 device (hd0,10) /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeebp11 grub> root (hd0,10) root (hd0,10) Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS Result from a similar system : [root@rx220b ~]# uname -a Linux rx220b 2.6.27.30-170.2.82.fc10.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Aug 17 08:18:34 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux [root@rx220b ~]# rpm -qa | grep grub grub-0.97-38.fc10.x86_64 [root@rx220b ~]# grub Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. 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> device (hd0,6) /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafhp7 device (hd0,6) /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafhp7 grub> device (hd0) /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh device (hd0) /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh grub> root (hd0,6) root (hd0,6) Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 grub> quit So I checked the partitiontable : on rhel-5 : [root@rx220a ~]# sfdisk /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ... BLKRRPART: Invalid argument OK Disk /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb: 19444 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary. DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently. Old situation: Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb1 * 0+ 12- 13- 104390+ 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb2 12+ 2101- 2089- 16779892 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb3 2101+ 2623- 522 4192965 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb4 2623+ 19443 16821- 135106682 5 Extended /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb5 2623+ 4712- 2089- 16779860+ 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb6 4712+ 6795- 2083- 16731665+ 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb7 6796+ 8886 2091- 16795926 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb8 8887+ 11062 2176- 17478688+ 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb9 11063+ 13673 2611- 20972826 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb10 13674+ 16047 2374- 19069123+ 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_bjfeeibeeb11 16048+ 17704 1657- 13309821 83 Linux Input in the following format; absent fields get a default value. <start> <size> <type [E,S,L,X,hex]> <bootable [-,*]> <c,h,s> <c,h,s> Usually you only need to specify <start> and <size> (and perhaps <type>). fedora 10: [root@rx220b ~]# sfdisk /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ... BLKRRPART: Invalid argument OK Disk /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh: 9717 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Old situation: Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh1 * 0+ 12 13- 104391 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh2 13 1579 1567 12586927+ 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh3 1580 2101 522 4192965 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh4 2102 9716 7615 61167487+ 5 Extended /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh5 2102+ 3668 1567- 12586896 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh6 3669+ 6087 2419- 19430586 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh7 6088+ 7654 1567- 12586896 83 Linux /dev/mapper/pdc_cjgdhdfafh8 7655+ 9716 2062- 16562983+ 83 Linux Input in the following format; absent fields get a default value. <start> <size> <type [E,S,L,X,hex]> <bootable [-,*]> <c,h,s> <c,h,s> Usually you only need to specify <start> and <size> (and perhaps <type>). So I suppose that the problem on rhel-5 is caused by Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary. DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Hi, the error message is addressing exceeding of BIOS limitations. Some information can be found here http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p15.html#18 From my point of view this is not something which can be fixed in grub - closing.
(In reply to comment #1) > Hi, the error message is addressing exceeding of BIOS limitations. Some > information can be found here http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p15.html#18 > > From my point of view this is not something which can be fixed in grub - > closing. Hi Václav, This is a new record from RedHat - it looks like that nobody touched this incident for more than 3 years - and then your conclusion is, that this can't be fixed. Just a question to you, why do you think that it worked with openSUSE or SLES ????? Winfrid
Hi, so what I see from output of sfdisk, you have disks configured completely different. That leads me to my conclusion that there might the problem - not in grub. Anyway, RHEL-5 is in very late phase of release cycle and even if I would consider this a grub bug, I would not think it is critical enough to be fixed now. Vaclav