Tim wrote:
On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 01:24 +0000, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
The only thing that *can* read the disk is the *bios*, and in a very
clumsy way --- the program that wants the data needs to specify the
hardware position where the data is written down, and ask the bios to
instruct the controller to move the heads to the appropriate position
and read off the data. When grub wants to read its configuration data
from /etc/grub.conf, that is precisely what it needs to do. ASK THE
BIOS TO READ IT. And based on that information, a kernel executable
should be loaded (and executed). The kernel executable is a file
called vmlinuz-something, residing in /boot/. So how does grub read
the kernel file? ASK THE BIOS TO READ IT.
And now we get to the point. Some bioses do not read past the 1024
cylinder. If the kernel file is beyond that point, bios fails to read
it. So grub fails also. And the computer does not boot.
I was under the impression that the BIOS only needed to be able to
access the first two or three GRUB stage files, and the third one was
used for accessing drives from that point (e.g. loading the kernel),
bypassing the BIOS.
If that were true, you'd have to configure grub with device drivers to
match your hardware.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
