GRUB Error 15 on NTFS (2nd menu.lst)

[cranphin]

Hi!

I'm trying to get wubi to run (alpha 8.04).
Grub loads from the c: drive (which is fat), but then fails to load the menu.lst on the install drive (k:, which is ntfs).
I get a Error 15, File not found.

I'm not an entire noob, so I've tried in grub:
'root (hd0,<TAB>', which gives me a list of possible partitions.
Now all but my c: drive are NTFS.
But in the list, some show as "is ntfs", and some show as "unknown".
They all are shown as type '0x7'.

After investigating more, I did find one difference between partitions that can be loaded, and that can be loaded:
The partitions that don't load, have sector size 16.
The partitions that do load, have sector size 8.
So, could this be the cause of grub failing, sector size 16 on ntfs ?
The partitions are not compressed, and have been checked for errors.

I also tried the fstest.exe from this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...49#post2763149

Note, my partition letters are a bit spaced, but are in order of partition number. These are all NTFS.
E,F,K have 16 sectors per cluster, the rest 8 per cluster.


Output:

K:\fstest>fstest.exe info d:
part_base: 0x3F3EC1 (2023M)
part_leng: 0x42EFB92 (34271M)

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

K:\fstest>fstest.exe info e:
ntfs_mount: 0

K:\fstest>fstest.exe info f:
ntfs_mount: 0

K:\fstest>fstest.exe info k:
ntfs_mount: 0

K:\fstest>fstest.exe info l:
part_base: 0x162919E6 (181539M)
part_leng: 0xC35314E (100006M)

blocksize: 512
spc: 8
mft_size: 2
idx_size: 8
mft_start: 0x600000
Warning: reading beyond the 137G limit

K:\fstest>fstest.exe info m:
part_base: 0x225E4B73 (281545M)
part_leng: 0xC35314E (100006M)

blocksize: 512
spc: 8
mft_size: 2
idx_size: 8
mft_start: 0x600000
Warning: reading beyond the 137G limit

[ago]

Hi cranphin, thanks for the detailed report, wish I had more like that...
I am no grub4dos expert so I will ask grub4dos devs to have a look at the above.

[cranphin]

Hi cranphin, thanks for the detailed report, wish I had more like that...
I am no grub4dos expert so I will ask grub4dos devs to have a look at the above.

My pleasure, I'm a programmer myself, so I know the value of detail
Let me know if I can provide any more information

Note I'm just guessing the sector size is the problem, it seems to match the situation here, but that's not guarantee.

[bean123]

Yes, the driver assume maximum cluster size of 4096 bytes (8 sector). btw, how do you know the sector size for your partition ?

[ago]

Thanks bean123 for looking into this

[bean123]

please try the new version of fstest.exe, see if it can list and compare files in your previous unknown partition.

[ago]

Bean123 is it possible/reasonable to change that and recompile?

[bean123]

Bean123 is it possible/reasonable to change that and recompile?

if the cluster size is the only reason that cause this problem, i think it's easy to fix.

[ago]

Would it also be possible to allow 2048 chars as kernel commandline length?
Not sure if it is because grub4dos but I get truncated commandline (which does not seem to be the case when using grub).

[bean123]

Would it also be possible to allow 2048 chars as kernel commandline length?
Not sure if it is because grub4dos but I get truncated commandline (which does not seem to be the case when using grub).

The maximum command line length is 1600, it's caused by an implementation limitation of grub legacy.