On GPT disk label, grub-install fails with Fatal error. Stage1 not read correctly.

Bug #181525 reported by mawalters1
14
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubiquity-frontend-gtk

Installation source: Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop edition 64bit AMD, iso used.
Disk information: PERC6 RAID5 7TB of Disk, /dev/sda shows 6998GB

Running the desktop install from the liveCD created from the installer source.
Dialog Installing System shows 94% Complete.
Dialog Unable to install GRUB in (hd0), Executing 'grub-install (hd0) failed. This is a fatal error.

Running grub-install manually: (since I am familiar with grub, and grub2)
grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
The file /mnt/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.

If useful here is parted listing for sda: ( and it mounts just fine.)
Disk /dev/sda: 850740cyl
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 850740,255,63. Each cylinder is 8225kB.
Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
 1 0cyl 832665cyl 832665cyl ext3 boot
 2 832665cyl 850740cyl 18074cyl linux-swap

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jan 9 08:49:07 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/yelp
Package: yelp 2.20.0-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcCmdline: yelp ghelp:about-ubuntu
ProcCwd: /home/ubuntu
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: yelp
Uname: Linux ubuntu 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 21:45:15 GMT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Tags: apport-bug
Revision history for this message
mawalters1 (markaw) wrote :
Revision history for this message
TerryG (tgalati4) wrote :

Triaged to Incomplete. Looks like a problem with GRUB accessing the MBR of your large drive. It may have something to do with going through the PERC6 RAID controller and 7 TB of disk. Is this really a desktop? What happens when you load the Live CD and choose: Boot from First Hard Disk?

Changed in ubiquity:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
mawalters1 (markaw) wrote : Re: [Bug 181525] Re: On GPT disk label, grub-install fails with Fatal error. Stage1 not read correctly.

I do not have the system available at this time.
I can recreate it however, currently it is at work.
Last I recall ubiquity exits in error since it doesn't successfully
install grub stage1 into mbr.

Long story of it:

It is not a desktop system really, but figured I would see how known
installation processes handle the large arrays, anything past 2TB.
It seemed that the Grub2 didn't have all that needed initially, but I
will have to recreate the situation again, which I can do tomorrow, or
make strides.

We are building debian 64bit system, using it embedded for our
security product.
I use ubuntu on my desktop and other system, just our products are
using the debian 64 distro.
I have spent a lot of time looking at various ways to configure large
arrays, things larger than 2TB, but most of our systems are 6 to 14
TB.

I basically use the first drive as OS, then create one large gpt
partition on the 6 to 8 TB array. But Grub has issue, grub2 had other
issues. I also notices fdisk, parted, and cfdisk have various querks
as well dealing with gpt.
At any rate I got around our configuring issues with our image restore
of embededed 64bit debian distro.

we use dump and restore, I essentially interrogate the devices, if I
get sda, it get sliced up as OS, then sdb, gets gpt and ext2, and
mounted to our application space.

In summary, I will try to recreate so that this issue can be analyzed.
most of it would be better for us if the Raid controller allowed for
carving, like 3ware does, so we don't waist space with unimportant
areas, or ares that don't grow.
I work for High Tower Software, inc.... high-tower.com if you have
need to understand what we are doing.
I dove into the ubiquity abit to figure out some of the logic, since
I didn't want to recreate the wheel.
<quote who="TerryG">
> Triaged to Incomplete. Looks like a problem with GRUB accessing the
> MBR
> of your large drive. It may have something to do with going through
> the
> PERC6 RAID controller and 7 TB of disk. Is this really a desktop?
> What
> happens when you load the Live CD and choose: Boot from First Hard
> Disk?
>
>
> ** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> On GPT disk label, grub-install fails with Fatal error. Stage1 not
> read correctly.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/181525
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Mark

Revision history for this message
TerryG (tgalati4) wrote :

Thanks for the quick response.

Wow! I don't have blade or large RAID experience, so I can't help here. Marking as Confirmed so that interested developers can follow. I would call this an edge case as ubiquity is aimed at the desktop user. That's not to say it can't be molded into a server/array installer.

Good luck with your development efforts.

Changed in ubiquity:
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Valentin (valentin-wizzgo) wrote :

Hi,

I observe exactly the same problem on PowerEdge 2970 with a RAID5 array of 6*750Gb.

I try to install Ubuntu Server 8.04.1 LTS, and it fails on grub-install, can't read stage1.

When I fallback to LILO, install finishes correctly. But in this case, on my 6 servers :
- 3 servers correctly boot
- the other 3 won't, displaying "LI 99 99 99 99 99 99 99..." during LILO init.

My 2 cents...

Revision history for this message
Jakob Unterwurzacher (jakobunt) wrote :

Have you created a BIOS boot partition ( http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS_Boot_Partition )?
I think you are experiencing Bug #506670 . Marking as duplicate.

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