#728914 grub-pc: grub rescue with raid1 root on 4TB device

Package:
grub-pc
Source:
grub2
Description:
GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS version)
Submitter:
francoisal
Date:
2013-11-10 06:51:04 UTC
Severity:
important
#728914#5
Date:
2013-11-06 20:51:20 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

I installed wheezy from scratch on my 2 x 4TB server, but I did not succeed
in booting the following configuration on my two drives :

# parted /dev/sda p
  Model: ATA WDC WD4000FYYZ-0 (scsi)
  Disk /dev/sda: 4001GB
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
  Partition Table: gpt

  Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
   1      1049kB  2097kB  1049kB                        bios_grub
   2      2097kB  3967GB  3967GB  ext4                  raid
   3      3967GB  4001GB  34.2GB  linux-swap(v1)

# parted /dev/sdb p
  Model: ATA WDC WD4000FYYZ-0 (scsi)
  Disk /dev/sdb: 4001GB
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
  Partition Table: gpt

  Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
   1      1049kB  2097kB  1049kB                        bios_grub
   2      2097kB  3967GB  3967GB                        raid
   3      3967GB  4001GB  34.2GB  linux-swap(v1)

At boot time, I land in grub rescue mode with "no such disk" error.

I do not undersand the issue because :
- the installation is OK while not using the second drive + not declaring any raid
- the "grub-install /dev/sda" does not report any error and we can see in its traces:
  # bash -x grub-install /dev/sda
    ...
    /usr/bin/grub-mkimage -d /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc -O i386-pc --output=/boot/grub/core.img
    '--prefix=(mduuid/2d81babd13f240ec4e10b2c7291977fc)/boot/grub' biosdisk ext2 part_gpt
    part_gpt raid mdraid1x
    ...

which looks fine for me.
#728914#10
Date:
2013-11-07 23:56:07 UTC
From:
To:
I tried to change one BIOS settings (ATA mode or AHCI) but it does not help.

However, I have no more issue when I boot my system with qemu -hda /dev/sda -hdb /dev/sdb.
Grub finds the raid device and the / partition inside.

So who could be guilty ?
#728914#15
Date:
2013-11-07 23:56:07 UTC
From:
To:
I tried to change one BIOS settings (ATA mode or AHCI) but it does not help.

However, I have no more issue when I boot my system with qemu -hda /dev/sda -hdb /dev/sdb.
Grub finds the raid device and the / partition inside.

So who could be guilty ?
#728914#20
Date:
2013-11-08 12:39:47 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

the only thing that comes to my mind (but you most likely did this
properly): is the correct core.img installed on *both* sda and sdb (i.e.
you executed 'grub-install /dev/sda' and 'grub-install /dev/sdb')?

Regards
Lukas Schwaighofer
#728914#25
Date:
2013-11-10 06:46:26 UTC
From:
To:
Thanks a lot for your advices. I tried to install grub on both sda and sdb but without success.

However I found a workaround and a possible guilty :
- switching to UEFI and installig grub-efi does work. I still have a "efidisk read error" which
is non-blocking because grub stage2 menu starts immediatly after displaying this
- therefore the guilty seems to be the BIOS. If you confirm this point, feel free to close the bug.