0

"Attempt to read or write outside of disk 'hd0'."

I have two HP Microserver Gen 8 units, basic configuration. One has an LSI MegaRaid SAS card in it (running Raid5 on a 4x2TB set of disks); the other has no extra cards etc (has 2 4TB drives, not RAID). One has 4GB RAM, the other has 6GB.

I receive the above error message any time I try to boot from a disk onto which I've done a UBUNTU install. The only way I have been able to use either of these for the past few years, is to boot up the UBUNTU installation, go through the configuration until network is configured, then drop to a shell and complete a minimal configuration, making directories, doing mounts, installing particular software, so that the data on these units' disks may be utilized a la NAS. Of course, if there is a power glitch or need to reboot, I have the opportunity to go through all of these steps again.

Again, two different units, purchased from two different sources many years apart, and each displays the same problem. Each is able to run the installation medium just fine, but I cannot seem to successfully install a working OS onto either one.

I've tried installing Ubuntu 14.04 and up (to 24.04). I've tried both desktop and server for many (maybe even for all) of these OS. Every time, I get through the installation without any error indication; every time, rebooting from the generated OS disk fails with the "attempt to read or write beyond hd0" error. I have tried the usual grub repair steps and on and on... all to no avail. I have not tried older OS because there's really no point; I need PHP at recent versions, etc. etc.

I do realize these units are old. Really old. But clearly they still run and they are useful to me. Any suggestions what might be preventing these units from successfully booting from a persistent OS disk?

I have tried to install to USB drives, and to internal drives on each of these units. In fact, in my last ditch effort before making this post, I removed all storage (even unplugged the optical drive), leaving only USB stick distro and USB stick target OS. The end result was the same: No errors on installation, but "attempt to read or write outside of hd0" when I tried to boot the result.

By the way, I am no stranger to Ubuntu and other linux insallations. At the present time (not counting these) I have three Ubuntu 22.04, one Ubuntu 24.04, and several raspberry pi (0w, 3b, 4b, 5) running various versions of Raspbian.

Any guidance appreciated. Thanks.

Improve this question
12
  • "I am no stranger to Ubuntu" So you already know that this is a Grub error. Odd that you didn't think to tell us anything about how the storage is configured when you get a storage error.
    – symcbean
    Commented May 31 at 9:02
  • @symcbean what would you like me to say about the configuration of storage when, for example, the only devices in some configuration attempts include only a USB disto image and a USB target?
    – Dennis
    Commented May 31 at 11:20
  • @RomeoNinov I think it's obvious I expected a response similar to this, so thank you for addressing the first half of that. But in order to move forward, do you have a suggestion where this question might be appropriate? Or do you feel it's enough to tell a person what he should not do when he clearly suspects that to be the case?
    – Dennis
    Commented May 31 at 11:22
  • Thank you, @RomeoNinov. Can it be moved? Or shall I ask it anew?
    – Dennis
    Commented May 31 at 11:24
  • 1
    Slightly dumb question - some of these classes of machines have internal USB ports, literally a USB port sticking out the motherboard on the inside can you check if there's anything there?
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented May 31 at 13:17

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .