Grub

[Les Mikesell]

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 at gmail.com