11.3 DVD indicates wrong HD size and a: Grub is living in a forbidden zone error.

Attempting install of 11.3 on previous 11.2 dual windows boot box. I want to format the Linux parts including /Home and retain the Win / NTFS part. (dual boot) Peculiar behavior of install DVD. Here is fdisk -l that clearly indicates a 500 GB HD and the Win partition, extended partition and the 3 basic Linux partitions and they seem okay in total.

Linux-mocx:/ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x252d252c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 20534 164931322 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 20534 60801 323452679 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 20534 20795 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 20796 23406 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 23407 60801 300375306 83 Linux

sda during install - total size of only 465.76 GB for sda (500 GB HD SATA)
sda 1 / windows c - 157.29 GB
sda 2 / extended - 308.47 GB
sda 5 / swap - 2.01 GB
sda 5 / root - 20.00 GB ext4
sda 5 / Home – 286.46 GB ext4

Installation DVD Red flagged me in the grub boot loader section during install with :

“ Bootloader is installed on a partition that does not lie entirely below 128 GB. The system might not boot. “

I aborted the installation. What could possibly cause the 11.2 parts and bootloader to get this wacked up ? Outside of some sound issues the 11.2 install works okay for the most part. No crashing or lockups. Really want to get up to 11.3. though. I obviously have some work to do with 35 GB of missing space on the HD and Grub living someplace on the wrong side of the river. Suggestions and a pointer or two would be most welcome guys. ( I really don’t want the pain of installing that “other” OP system or I’d reformat and reinstall nice and clean.) Do I need to repartition, change mount points and reinstall Grub maybe.

difficilus wrote:

> Linux-mocx:/ # fdisk -l
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x252d252c
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 1 20534 164931322 7
> HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda2 * 20534 60801 323452679 f W95 Ext’d
> (LBA)
> /dev/sda5 20534 20795 2104483+ 82 Linux swap /
> Solaris
> /dev/sda6 20796 23406 20972826 83 Linux
> /dev/sda7 23407 60801 300375306 83 Linux
>
>
> sda during install - total size of only 465.76 GB for sda (500 GB HD
> SATA)
> sda 1 / windows c - 157.29 GB
> sda 2 / extended - 308.47 GB
> sda 5 / swap - 2.01 GB
> sda 5 / root - 20.00 GB ext4
> sda 5 / Home – 286.46 GB ext4

The harddisk is 500.1 GB with 1kb = 1000bytes. Your calculation appears
to be based on 1kb = 1024bytes.


Per Jessen, Zürich (22.6°C)
http://en.opensuse.org/User:Pjessen

Duh ! I reiterate… Duh! Thanks. Still have the Bootloader at install thingy though. Working on it.

Just install grub to MBR, move the boot flag off extended to sda5
Should work

I’ve got the same problem as difficilus. I installed 11.3 on sda3 which starts below and ends above 128 GB. When I start booting, grub freezes.
I can’t shrink sda1 or sda2 and I was strongly discouraged to install grub to MBR, because it’s a MacBook Pro and this could mess with rEFIt.
Is there a chance to solve this problem without repartitioning?

On 2010-07-18 16:16 GMT bianchix wrote:

>
> I’ve got the same problem as difficilus. I installed 11.3 on sda3
> which starts below and ends above 128 GB. When I start booting, grub
> freezes. I can’t shrink sda1 or sda2 and I was strongly discouraged
> to install grub to MBR, because it’s a MacBook Pro and this could
> mess with rEFIt. Is there a chance to solve this problem without
> repartitioning?
>
>

Well… I would try a small (200 MiB) boot (/boot) partition sda3, with
sda4 as extended and linux on logical sda5. Grub goes to sda3, then,
below the 128 limit (if that is indeed the problem).

It’s an idea, can’t certify it.

On this laptop, I have something similar. sda1, 2, and 3 belong to
windows 7 and recovery partition. sda4 is the extended, and the one
marked bootable (original boot code in MBR). Grub is in sda4 - yes, the
extended partition. Linux goes to sda5…9 (separate /boot is sda6).


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Minas Tirith))

this seems to be systemic … i tried to install 11.3 on two different machines and got the same error msg (even to the effect that on one it wouldn’t even boot into linux, just windows) … i never had to deal with this before 11.3 … theo

it is an error that is indigenous to 11.3 … just reinstalled 11.2 on the same machine 11.3 had this “ Bootloader is installed on a partition that does not lie entirely below 128 GB. The system might not boot." problem, and grub works fine … theo

alright, after a little tinkering i found this solution … it’s not a pretty one (opensuse still needs to fix this problem in the 11.3 distro) but it works:

  1. make a clean install of opensuse 11.2
  2. go through all updates during installation
    3.when install is complete, delete the 11.2 dvd- (oss) and the cd (non-oss) repositories
  3. add the 11.3 dvd- and cd-repositories
  4. change the online repositories to 11.3 (i.e. download.opensuse.org/distribition/11.2/repo/oss/download.opensuse.org/distribition/11.3/repo/oss/)
  5. open terminal and switch to root privileges (type: su - and: yourrootpassword)
  6. type: zypper ref
  7. type: zypper dup (distribution upgrade)
  8. resolve depedency conflicts
  9. execute distritribution upgrade
  10. when done, type: zypper clean
  11. reboot your computer (any other systems [windows, ubuntu, etc] will not show in the initial boot menu, do not panic)
  12. goto yast->system->bootloader
  13. delete all boot option with the old kernel (i.e 11.3 installed 2.6.34…, but there were still 11.2’s 2.6.31s… on the menu)
  14. select opensuse 2.6.34… (default) as your default boot option
  15. activate any non-opensuse boot options (i.e. windows, ubuntu, etc)
  16. click: ok, reboot, and 11.3 works
    (18. install any software you need)
    again, this is tedious and novell really needs to fix 11.3’s bootloader issue
    good luck, theo

alright, after a little tinkering i found this solution … it’s not a pretty one (opensuse still needs to fix this problem in the 11.3 distro) but it works:

  1. make a clean install of opensuse 11.2
  2. go through all updates during installation
    3.when install is complete, delete the 11.2 dvd- (oss) and the cd (non-oss) repositories
  3. add the 11.3 dvd- and cd-repositories
  4. change the online repositories to 11.3 (i.e. download.opensuse.org/distribition/11.2/repo/oss/download.opensuse.org/distribition/11.3/repo/oss/)
  5. open terminal and switch to root privileges (type: su - and: yourrootpassword)
  6. type: zypper ref
  7. type: zypper dup (distribution upgrade)
  8. resolve depedency conflicts
  9. execute distritribution upgrade
  10. when done, type: zypper clean
  11. reboot your computer (any other systems [windows, ubuntu, etc] will not show in the initial boot menu, do not panic)
  12. goto yast->system->bootloader
  13. delete all boot option with the old kernel (i.e 11.3 installed 2.6.34…, but there were still 11.2’s 2.6.31s… on the menu)
  14. select opensuse 2.6.34… (default) as your default boot option
  15. activate any non-opensuse boot options (i.e. windows, ubuntu, etc)
  16. click: ok, reboot, and 11.3 works
    (18. install any software you need)
    again, this is tedious and novell really needs to fix 11.3’s bootloader issue
    good luck, theo

On 2010-09-12 18:06, topitz wrote:

> again, this is tedious and novell really needs to fix 11.3’s bootloader
> issue

Tell them, not us: we are just users like you.

Ie, write a Bugzilla.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

hi,
I got the same problem, and I just went back to create partition, then I’ve chosen use entire hardi disk and accepeted the following steps. the thing worked perfectly.
Abdellah