Re: Grub on XFS root filesystem
On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:04:51 -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> The problem described in the release notes arises when you try to install a
> stock Lenny initrd 2.6.26 kernel _after_ the dist upgrade. Apparently some of
> the stock Lenny kernels have an initrd image that's too large for lilo to handle.
lilo uses BIOS calls to load the kernel and the initial RAM disk
image into memory. The kernel is loaded into as low of memory addresses as
possible/practical. Due to restrictions in older BIOSes, the initial RAM disk
image is loaded into memory within the first 16 megabytes of RAM, with the
starting address of the Extended BIOS Data Area (EBDA) as the upper limit
for the end of the initial RAM disk image. The lower limit for the beginning
of the initial RAM disk image is of course the end of the kernel image.
There are two ways around this problem. The first way is to use the "large-memory"
option of lilo. Newer releases of lilo support this option. This allows the
initial RAM disk image to load above the 16M line. However, this requires
support in the BIOS. Most BIOS dates after 2001 or so will support this, but
not all. Make sure that you have a rescue CD handy just in case.
The second method is to reduce the size of the initial RAM disk. By changing
modules=most to modules=dep in /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf (and
possibly in /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/driver-policy as well, if it exists) and
running update-initramfs, you can probably reduce the size of the initial
RAM disk image to the point where it will fit below 16M again.
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