Comment 22 for bug 396564

I experience the same thing.

Two 1 TB drives are set up with two partitions each: one for /boot, one for LVM. Inside the logic volumegroups are separate logic volumes for /, /var, /tmp and swap. Both partitions are mirrored with software RAID (level 1).

The other eight 1 TB drives are hooked up to a Dell PERC6/i RAID controller in a hardware array (level 6) with one hotspare.

Upon booting the boot loader displays "GRUB loading" for some seconds, then (twice):

error: biosdisk read error
error: biosdisk read error.

Seconds later the systems continues to boot normally. Is there anything more I can investigate to clear up things? Log messages that might reveal something of importance?

Cheers

> uname -a

Linux ***Name*** 2.6.31-14-server #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 15:07:34 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

> cat /etc/lsb-release

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=karmic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.10"

> sudo fdisk -l

Platte /dev/sda: 1000.2 GByte, 1000204886016 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 121601 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00078612

   Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 122 979933+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 123 121601 975780067+ 5 Erweiterte
/dev/sda5 123 121601 975780036 fd Linux raid autodetect

Platte /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GByte, 1000204886016 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 121601 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x42424242

   Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 122 979933+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2 123 121601 975780067+ 5 Erweiterte
/dev/sdb5 123 121601 975780036 fd Linux raid autodetect

Platte /dev/md1: 999.2 GByte, 999198687232 Byte
2 Köpfe, 4 Sektoren/Spuren, 243944992 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 8 × 512 = 4096 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Festplatte /dev/md1 enthält keine gültige Partitionstabelle

Platte /dev/md0: 1003 MByte, 1003356160 Byte
2 Köpfe, 4 Sektoren/Spuren, 244960 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 8 × 512 = 4096 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Festplatte /dev/md0 enthält keine gültige Partitionstabelle

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdc'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

WARNING: The size of this disk is 5.0 TB (4998268190720 bytes).
DOS partition table format can not be used on drives for volumes
larger than (2199023255040 bytes) for 512-byte sectors. Use parted(1) and GUID
partition table format (GPT).

Platte /dev/sdc: 4998.3 GByte, 4998268190720 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 607671 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 267350 2147483647+ ee GPT

> sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md0

/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90
  Creation Time : Fri Nov 20 09:03:34 2009
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 979840 (957.04 MiB 1003.36 MB)
  Used Dev Size : 979840 (957.04 MiB 1003.36 MB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Fri Nov 20 09:54:55 2009
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : 7901eabc:4275a97b:d39e991d:9964d437
         Events : 0.20

    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/md0:
        Version : 00.90
  Creation Time : Fri Nov 20 09:03:34 2009
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 979840 (957.04 MiB 1003.36 MB)
  Used Dev Size : 979840 (957.04 MiB 1003.36 MB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Fri Nov 20 09:54:55 2009
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : 7901eabc:4275a97b:d39e991d:9964d437
         Events : 0.20

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

> cat /proc/mdstat

Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0]
      979840 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sdb5[1] sda5[0]
      975779968 blocks [2/2] [UU]
      [====>................] resync = 24.9% (243535744/975779968) finish=136.8min speed=89164K/sec

unused devices: <none>