[Bug 477430] Re: grub 2 error: out of disk. failed to boot default entries. press any key to continue...

[juanmatias]

Hello, everybody.

After read a lot of pages, try a lot of "possible solutions" and fail
every time, I still have the same "out of disk" error on GRUB load.

Last step I took: ensambled a PC with an ASUS M5A78L LE, Athlon II X3, 4Gb RAM, SATA HDD WDC WD10EARS-00MVWB0 1TB.
Soft: Linux Mint 12 (Ubuntu based), grub-setup (GRUB) 1.99-12ubuntu5-1linuxmint1

When I start with a hard boot I get the "out of disk". But if I start
with a soft reset ther is no problem.

What I found:

In the GRUB's rescue line I put 'ls' and I can see my partitions, ie (hd0,msdos1).
If I enter "ls (hd0,msdos1)/" I can see the files and dirs in the disk. But if I enter "ls (hd0,msdos1)/boot/" I get an error.

I tried "Super Grub2 Disk", and again in a hard boot I can't see any OS
nor grub.cfg files. But if I run "Super Grub2 Disk" after a soft reboot
I have no problem.

So, I thought the problem is only during the hard boot.

Seeing at the BIOS I found this: During a hard boot the BIOS' POST
message shows a 32Mb HDD. But during a soft reset it shows a correct
capacity (1TB).

So, the problem, I think, is that during a hard boot, since BIOS is detecting only 32Mb (the HDD's cache size) GRUB can't find any file beyond this capacity.
Then I start my PC with a USB stick, and starts ok. The loader shows the boot menu, I select the choice and the load process begins. In this moment, does not matter if it is before OS finish its load or not, I reset my PC (throguh ALT+CTRL+DEL or reset button). Since this time is a soft reset, the BIOS detects correctly the 1TB hdd and my OS loads with no problem.

My guess: when the USB stick (or live CD) boots, the HDD starts to work,
then it reports it whole capacity. Then if I reset my PC it is correclty
detected and the OS starts ok.

My question: Is there a method that GRUB can "start" the HDD someway, so
it report the correct capacity then the files can be accessed?

I don't know if it is a HDD's bug (I read a lot of people have this
issue with big HDDs), but maybe it can be solved from within GRUB
somehow.

Do you need more info about my PC?

Thanks.

JuanMatias

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/477430

Title:
  grub 2 error: out of disk. failed to boot default entries. press any
  key to continue...

Status in “grub2” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: grub2

  I recently updated one of my computers to Ubuntu 9.10 and I've been
  trying to upgrade the bootloader to grub 2. The computer is an Acer
  TravelMate 240 but the hard drive died some time ago so I've been
  booting off a USB harddrive, because the computer's BIOS doesn't
  support USB boot, I'm using the PLoP Bootmanager on CD
  (http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html) to chainload GRUB from the
  USB drive. GRUB legacy has been working fine like this for months.

  Now when I chainload GRUB 2 from GRUB legacy I get the following
  error:

  error: out of disk

      Failed to boot default entries.

  Press any key to continue...

  When I press a key the message just repeats. In order to boot and
  access the GRUB legacy menu, I have to do a CTRL+ALT+DEL. Please tell
  me if you need any more information to complete this bug report.

  ProblemType: Bug
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Sat Nov  7 15:08:55 2009
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
  Package: grub-pc 1.97~beta4-1ubuntu4
  ProcEnviron:
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
  SourcePackage: grub2
  Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

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