Re: "GRUB loading" problem with AMD64 install
Solved!
But, it isn't pretty...
This appears to be a K8V BIOS issue... In the BIOS, under the hard drive
section, there is an option for LBA... The choices are "auto" and
"disabled"... There is no option for "enabled"... Apparently, there is
no way, in the BIOS, to force LBA on...
Every time you boot the BIOS looks to see if the drive is formatted with
LBA enabled... If it is, LBA is turned on... If not, it is turned off...
You can view this at the second black boot screen, which lists all the
properties of the system... The screen where it asks you to hit <ESC> to
boot...
So, check this out:
-> Zero MBR (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1) and then
reboot... LBA is on...
-> Boot random Linux ISO... Using previously cleared MBR, make a
partition table and then reboot... LBA is off...
-> Boot Windows 98 floppy... Use floppy to write a new MBR (fdisk /mbr)
and then reboot... LBA is on...
What have we learned? Somehow, the Linux way of writing the partition
table is messing things up... So now what do we do?
-> Boot random Linux ISO... Using existing Windows MBR, make a new
partition... Format partition however you want and then reboot... LBA is
on...
Observe:
With no LBA:
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 155061 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
With LBA:
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
They are both the same size but they have a different reported
geometry...
Anyways, I have rebooted several times to make sure that this works... I
have no idea what LBA is exactly, or why we need it, but it looks like
this is the problem... Hopefully Asus will release a new BIOS that
allows you to force LBA on...
Note there is an option in the installer for Debian to write a whole new
MBR... I think this option also causes this error...
I sure hope there is an easier solution!
Mike (Xyzzy)
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