CentOS 6.6 64-bit Won’t Install On A 3 TB Disk

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Hello everyone,

I’m having an issue getting a C6.6 install to work on a 3 TB dual hard drive system, raid 0. I’m hoping that someone here can help.

So, I install as normal, but then reboot, and it comes to a grub prompt. Going into the system via Linux rescue, I see that most of the files dealing with the kernel haven’t been installed.

I asked the maker of the server and he said that they have noticed this happen recently. A solution is to put the kernel files on a thumb drive, and then point the OS to look for them there.

I have yet to try it, but is there a better way to deal with this issue that anyone else has done?

Gilbert

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Gilbert Sebenste ********
(My opinions only!) ******
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5 thoughts on - CentOS 6.6 64-bit Won’t Install On A 3 TB Disk

  • Have you tried manually putting the kernel/initrd files where they are missing from?

    Having said that, relying on this machine as a server seems questionable under the circumstances. :-)

    Lucian

  • 1: Is this system booting UEFI or BIOS?
    2: Is the disk partitioned with MBR or GPT?
    3: Is /boot on its own partition?

    3TB drives are larger than MBR and BIOS properly support, so they’re only really expected to work on a system partitioned with GPT and booting via UEFI. And in that case, /boot and /boot/efi need to be individual partitions.

  • Hi Gordon,

    UEFI,

    MBR

    No.

    Ahhhhh, OK. Well, I have some work to do this afternoon. Thanks for the very helpful tips!

    Gilbert

    *******************************************************************************
    Gilbert Sebenste ********
    (My opinions only!) ******
    *******************************************************************************

  • Not exactly true – they work fine with an MBR but you can access 2/3 of the drive. Also it is not necessary to use UEFI to boot.

    You can have a fakeout mbr that is used for a standard bios boot.

    # fdisk -l

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

    Disk /dev/sda: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000

    Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
    /dev/sda1 1 267350 2147483647+ ee GPT
    Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary. Tue Jan 13 12:55:21 EST 2015
    P308771:~

    # parted -l Model: ATA WDC WD30EFRX-68E (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 3001GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
    Partition Table: gpt

    Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
    1 1049kB 2097kB 1049kB bbp bios_grub
    2 2097kB 1002MB 1000MB ext3 primary
    3 1002MB 5002MB 3999MB linux-swap(v1) primary
    4 5002MB 3001GB 2996GB ext4 primary

  • In addition this is how we partition our 3TB drives for a bios boot using parted. parted -s ${DRIVE} — mklabel gpt \
    mkpart bbp 1MB 2MB \
    set 1 bios_grub on \
    mkpart primary ext3 2MB 1002MB \
    mkpart primary linux-swap 1002MB 5002MB \
    mkpart primary ext2 5002MB -1