Weird GRLDR Error, Possible Bug?

[Computer Guru]

I'm having some issue with someone testing EasyBCD's Wubi support.

GRLDR has been embedded to look for and use \NST\menu.lst

The file exists on his system, but GRLDR cannot see it.

Here is the output from fstest on that machine:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
C:\>fstest info C:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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part_base: 0x800 (1M)
part_leng: 0x3A385000 (476938M)

blocksize: 512
spc: 8
mft_size: 2
idx_size: 8
mft_start: 0x600000

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
C:\>fstest inode C:\$MFT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
Type: File
Attr:
 $STANDARD_INFORMATION (0x10) (r,sz=72)
 $FILENAME (0x30) (r,sz=74)
   $MFT
 $DATA (0x80) (nr,sz=144572416)
   6291456+110336,37639680+172032
 $BITMAP (0xB0) (nr,sz=20488)
   6291448+8,488384560+8,9595392+8,9459624+8,521901832+8,555469232+8

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest inode C:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
ntfs_dir: 17

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>Fstest list c:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
000099F9         65536  FACTUR~1.LOG
0000003D             0  [PROGRA~1]
00020B8E          1024  .rnd
000033DC             0  [Archivos de programa]
000033DC             0  [ARCHIV~1]
00001D57            24  autoexec.bat
0000F565        162004  bar.emf
00009579             0  [Boot]
00021221            67  boot.ini
000095AD        438840  bootmgr
000095B8          8192  BOOTSECT.BAK
000099FA           160  cone.ini
0000C393             0  [Config.Msi]
00001D58            10  config.sys
00009769             0  [conn]
0000977B             0  [Control de Inventario]
0000977B             0  [CONTRO~1]
000097E5             0  [CursoNet]
0000D264             0  [dell]
0000930B             0  [Dll]
00001D5B             0  [Documents and Settings]
00001D5B             0  [DOCUME~1]
00014506             0  [Downloads]
00014506             0  [DOWNLO~1]
0000A610             0  [Emulator]
00009844             0  [Facturacion]
000099FB       1355776  facturacion.db
000099F9         65536  facturacion.log
00013D33         65536  facturacion.mlg
00009844             0  [FACTUR~1]
000099FB       1355776  FACTUR~1.DB
00013D33         65536  FACTUR~1.MLG
000221C7          4535  fstest.bat
000221C8         39096  fstest.exe
00021F61          6591  fstest.txt
0000FF30             0  [Games]
00021220        178629  grldr
000221C6          8192  grldr.mbr
0000B5CE            34  hcwclear.txt
00000031    2145558528  hiberfil.sys
0000E098             0  [IDE]
0000FB07           568  IDL.log
0000FF97             0  [inetpub]
0002129E             0  IO.SYS
000098B5             0  [JavaProjects]
000098B5             0  [JAVAPR~1]
0002121F          1867  menu.lst
00009821             0  [MSDN]
0002129D             0  MSDOS.SYS
0000DC0D             0  [MSOCache]
00013AD3             0  [MyVideos]
0002196E        178553  NeoGrub
00021A79             0  [NST]
0000ACB0             0  [NVIDIA]
000099B0             0  [Och]
000001E7   -1835483136  pagefile.sys
000099B8             0  [PowerBuilder]
000099B8             0  [POWERB~1]
0000003D             0  [Program Files]
00000115             0  [ProgramData]
00000115             0  [PROGRA~2]
00020B8E          1024  RND~1
0000D0B5           268  sqmdata00.sqm
0000D0B5           268  SQMDAT~1.SQM
0000D0B4           244  sqmnoopt00.sqm
0000D0B4           244  SQMNOO~1.SQM
000095C4             0  [System Volume Information]
000095C4             0  [SYSTEM~1]
00014A70             0  [The Tibetan Book Of The Dead]
00014A70             0  [THETIB~1]
000099E1             0  [Trabajo PRG3 REG3]
0001F834             0  [Trabajo PRG3 REG3 - copia]
000099E1             0  [TRABAJ~1]
0001F834             0  [TRABAJ~2]
000001A0             0  [Users]
00000232             0  [Windows]
0001E2EE             0  [wubi]
00014601           146  YServer.txt

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest inode c:\wubi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Type: Directory
Attr:
 $STANDARD_INFORMATION (0x10) (r,sz=72)
 $FILENAME (0x30) (r,sz=74)
   wubi
 $INDEX_ROOT (0x90) (r,nm=$I30,sz=56)
 $INDEX_ALLOCATION (0xA0) (nr,nm=$I30,sz=4096)
   151920+8
 $BITMAP (0xB0) (r,nm=$I30,sz=8)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest inode c:\wubi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Type: Directory
Attr:
 $STANDARD_INFORMATION (0x10) (r,sz=72)
 $FILENAME (0x30) (r,sz=74)
   wubi
 $INDEX_ROOT (0x90) (r,nm=$I30,sz=56)
 $INDEX_ALLOCATION (0xA0) (nr,nm=$I30,sz=4096)
   151920+8
 $BITMAP (0xB0) (r,nm=$I30,sz=8)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest inode c:\wubi\boot
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Type: Directory
Attr:
 $STANDARD_INFORMATION (0x10) (r,sz=72)
 $FILENAME (0x30) (r,sz=74)
   boot
 $INDEX_ROOT (0x90) (r,nm=$I30,sz=432)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest list c:\wubi\boot\
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
0001E377             0  [grub]
0002120C       7934327  initrd
0002120D       1745100  linux
0001E37C             0  [winboot]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest comp c:\grldr
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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File size : 178629
Comparing
Succeed

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest comp c:\wubi\boot\linux
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
File size : 1745100
Comparing .
Succeed

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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C:\>fstest comp c:\wubi\boot\initrd
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
File size : 7934327
Comparing .......
Succeed
Warning: reading beyond the 137G limit

C:\>fstest inode c:\nst
Type: Directory
Attr:
 $STANDARD_INFORMATION (0x10) (r,sz=72)
 $FILENAME (0x30) (r,sz=72)
   NST
 $INDEX_ROOT (0x90) (r,nm=$I30,sz=256)

C:\>fstest comp c:\nst\menu.lst
File size : 407
Comparing
Succeed

Though his HD is > 137GB, and fstest points out that initrd will not be loadable. BUT, it doesn't give any errors whatsoever for c:\nst\menu.lst, which is where GRLDR is failing.

Do you have any idea what can be wrong? Is this an NTFS bug?

[bean123]

Maybe the NSL directory is over 137G, try :

fstest list C:\NSL\

fstest comp C:\NSL\menu.lst

[CrazyGuy123]

bean:
Is 137G a limitation of GRUB, or a limitation of the BIOS calls? If it's the BIOS calls, how come the windows bootloader can load stuff beyond that? It loads about 30 drivers etc. before the disk driver, so it must be using BIOS calls then, and I'm sure there's no restriction on where those files can be placed.

[bean123]

It's a BIOS related problem. XP can boot because the startup files are normally at the beginning of the disk.

[CrazyGuy123]

It surely can't be just chance that millions of XP pc's happen to all have every single one of the boot files near the start of the disk - quite a lot of people install XP to an already nearly full NTFS disk where the boot files couldn't be placed anywhere reliably, unless XP has some mechanism for putting some kind of tag on a file saying it must go at the start of the disk.

If this is the case, and wubi boots by moving it's files near the start of the disk, the installer could very easily move the files to the start, because the windows defragmentation API's allow files to be moved around. I wouldn't call that reliable though because it's easily possible another program, like a backup utility or a defrag program could move them post installation.

[Computer Guru]

Maybe the NSL directory is over 137G, try :

fstest list C:\NSL\

fstest comp C:\NSL\menu.lst

That's in the first post (NST, btw, not nsl)

See the very last output:

comp c:\nst\menu.lst

it comes out OK

[tinybit]

In the first post, it was "fstest inode c:\nst", but Bean needs "fstest list C:\NST\".

[tinybit]

It surely can't be just chance that millions of XP pc's happen to all have every single one of the boot files near the start of the disk - quite a lot of people install XP to an already nearly full NTFS disk where the boot files couldn't be placed anywhere reliably, unless XP has some mechanism for putting some kind of tag on a file saying it must go at the start of the disk.

I believe that is just the case. At least the NTLDR(or bootmgr) file should be accessible by BIOS. And XP has to ensure that. So wubi should move files if needed. All files that need to be read by grub should also be readable by BIOS.

[bean123]

It surely can't be just chance that millions of XP pc's happen to all have every single one of the boot files near the start of the disk - quite a lot of people install XP to an already nearly full NTFS disk where the boot files couldn't be placed anywhere reliably, unless XP has some mechanism for putting some kind of tag on a file saying it must go at the start of the disk.

If this is the case, and wubi boots by moving it's files near the start of the disk, the installer could very easily move the files to the start, because the windows defragmentation API's allow files to be moved around. I wouldn't call that reliable though because it's easily possible another program, like a backup utility or a defrag program could move them post installation.

In fact, there is a simple way to verify it. Create a partition whose starting address is above 137G, and install XP. Then, move the disk to a machine not supporting large disk, and see if it can boot sucessfully.

[bean123]

That's in the first post (NST, btw, not nsl)

See the very last output:

comp c:\nst\menu.lst

it comes out OK

That's strange, fstest and the ntfs driver use the same code, if fstest can read it, so can grldr. You type command:

cat (hd0,0)/nst/menu.lst

in the grub console, see if it can read the content of /nst/menu.lst