[LinuxBIOS] 2 Terabyte Limit of BIOS/MBR

[jakllsch at kollasch.net]

On Thu, Jan 10, 2008 at 09:59:14PM +0100, Martin Marcher wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> hope to be in the right place to ask this, if not just point me to where you
> think it's apropriate
> 
> my Hardware is:
> 
> Tyan Transport GT20 (B2865)
> http://www.tyan.com/support_download_manuals.aspx?model=B.GT20B2865
> 
> an Areca 1210 raid controller is attached to it and I just was hit by the
> 2TB limit which a BIOS can handle.
> 
> Is that right that the problem is the BIOS?

Or at least a problem with the Areca BIOS extension.
Could also be the main Tyan BIOS too I suppose.

INT13h Extensions support 64-bit LBAs, so that's not an inherent
problem unless there are limitations of the BIOSes's implementations.

> how I understand the different articles at wikipedia, ms and different
> netsources the BIOS just can't handle disks that are larger than 2TB, in
> turn this renders a MBR unusable. Fine so I convert the disk to a GPT and
> off I should go. But I found that the bios of this board still refuses to
> accept the disk (reported as an scsi device from the controller) and just
> says "No BIOS disk found".

Well, you're distorting some things there.  The BIOS itself
just provides functions for disk access, and by itself, is
incapable of understanding partition tables.

Also, the limitations of 32-bit Windows® are totally irrelevant. :)

Now to get remotely on-topic:
If you're not interested in the task of porting LB to your board,
I'd start bugging both Tyan and Areca.

	Jonathan Kollasch
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