Comment 21 for bug 396564

same issue here. "grub loading." stays for a while, then i get "error: biosdisk read error".
Karmic Koala stable x64 alternative installation. mirror RAID for /boot and an encrypted mirror RAID for / (root)

> sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0002d4ad

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 134 1076323+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 135 30401 243119677+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00025c92

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 134 1076323+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2 135 30401 243119677+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/md0: 1102 MB, 1102053376 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 269056 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/md0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md1: 249.0 GB, 248954421248 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 60779888 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x08040000

Disk /dev/md1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

> sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90
  Creation Time : Fri Oct 30 15:40:33 2009
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 1076224 (1051.18 MiB 1102.05 MB)
  Used Dev Size : 1076224 (1051.18 MiB 1102.05 MB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Tue Nov 10 10:56:31 2009
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : 47c9a647:473c1802:9515e672:ee318adb
         Events : 0.229

    Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
       0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1
       1 8 17 1 active sync /dev/sdb1

> sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md1
/dev/md1:
        Version : 00.90
  Creation Time : Fri Oct 30 15:40:47 2009
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 243119552 (231.86 GiB 248.95 GB)
  Used Dev Size : 243119552 (231.86 GiB 248.95 GB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 1
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Tue Nov 10 11:10:50 2009
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : 026cf484:89dec43d:3b5e59a4:166e8441
         Events : 0.169383

    Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
       0 8 2 0 active sync /dev/sda2
       1 8 18 1 active sync /dev/sdb2

> cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
      243119552 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      1076224 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>