gpt-bios from setup-storage - does it really work?

[Steffen Grunewald]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 01:37:24PM +0100, Carsten Aulbert wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I'm trying to partition a machine with the following disk configuration:
> 
> disk_config /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600050e0f065*[A-Z0-9_][A-Z0-9_][A-Z0-9_] 
> fstabkey:uuid disklabel:gpt-bios bootable:1
> 
> primary  /boot         256      ext2     rw,errors=remount-ro 
> primary  /             10000   ext3      rw
> primary  swap          8192    swap     sw
> primary  /var         20000        xfs    rw
> primary  /opt         50000        xfs    rw
> primary  /tmp         2048         xfs    rw
> primary  /local        1000-       xfs     rw
> 
> all seems fine, but GRUB won't start after the reboot as is not able to reach 
> the gpt-bios "partition":
> 
> GNU Parted 2.3
> Using /dev/sdb
> Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
> (parted) p                                                                
> Model: AMCC 9690SA-4I DISK (scsi)
> Disk /dev/sdb: 3000GB
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
> Partition Table: gpt
> 
> Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name     Flags
>  1      32.3kB  268MB   268MB   ext2            primary  boot

32.3KB - does this mean "63 sectors"? AFAIK a GPT needs 34 sectors,
both at the beginning and the end of the disk...

>  2      268MB   10.8GB  10.5GB  ext3            primary
>  3      10.8GB  19.3GB  8590MB  linux-swap(v1)  primary
>  4      19.3GB  40.3GB  21.0GB  xfs             primary
>  5      40.3GB  92.7GB  52.4GB  xfs             primary
>  6      92.7GB  94.9GB  2147MB  xfs             primary
>  7      94.9GB  3000GB  2905GB  xfs             primary
>  8      3000GB  3000GB  123kB                   primary  bios_grub
> 
> as this one is beyond the 2TB "border"...
> 
> Is there a nice way to "reserve" this partition right at the beginning?

What about splitting the large volume into two at the raid controller level,
and having a "normal" boot partition (and a "normal" grub installation at
the beginning of a small-sized volume)?

S