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

[juanmatias]

Ok, dudes.

Finally I SOLVED my issue. I'll post this info here 'cos if this is the
cause for your problem then is not a GRUB's bug.

I read a reported issue with the HPA in the disk. Shortly, seems to be
that a some motherboards write a copy of the BIOS (or something like
this) in a low area of the disk. Then, since it used some space tries to
write the correct amount of usable space. For example, if the MB used
1Mb then corrects the HDD size to be 1Mb smaller. This seems to be
common with Gigabyte MB (which have XpressRecovery).

Ok, I have an ASUS mother, which doesn't write to HPA. But my HDD was used in a GB MB previously and despite I already deleted all the partitions and formated the unit seems to be that the problem was still there.
I used to check it hdparm utility:

I ran this command (my disk is /dev/sda)

    hdparm -N  /dev/sda

This is the result:

   /dev/sda:
    max sectors   = 1953525168/1953525168, HPA is disabled

As you can see HPA is disabled. Anyway I tried to apply the solution as
if HPA were enabled, which is re write the visible sectors of the disk
again on it. In this case:

    hdparm -N  p1953525168 /dev/sda

(don't forget the "p" in front of the number, it makes the change
permanent)

Then I rebooted my PC and the POST message of BIOS reported my disk as
1TB.

So what I think. The motherboard (in this case the previous Gigabyte
used with my disk) wrote the HPA. Despite I repartitioned and formated
the disk, something remained in the unit reporting to the BIOS a wrong
capacity (I read that in Windows the OS itself could have problem
reading this value, does it read the value from the BIOS? I don't know).
In my GNULinux I got the correct capacity since the OS read this value
in other way (does it count the sectors or something else? I don't
know). So, if you rewrite this value with hdparm (or use other apps such
HDAT2 or "HDD capacity restore tool", I didn't test these apps, I used
hdparm only) the disk should report the correct amount of sectors to
BIOS.

Ok, I hope this info will be useful for a lot of people and I insist, if
this is the problem (thanks Gigabyte Motherboard for my time researching
;) )it is not a GRUB's bug.

Regards.

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You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
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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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