Ubuntu Installation Problem

Friends, i faced a problem while installing Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. I first created a ext3 partition of 5 GB for the root and a 500 MB partition for the Swap. I booted from the Ubuntu CD and installed the OS on these partitions. The Istallation went by smoothly. After completion I rebboted the system and i got the following error:

"
GRUB Loading Stage1.5
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 18
"
I tried twice and got the same error. I have WIndows XP SP2 installed on a seperate partition on the same hardisk. The hard disk is Segate Baraccuda 7200.8 PATA 250 GB.

M

This is the problem

Grub error 18
info grub wrote:
18 : Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS. This error is returned when a read is attempted at a linear block address beyond the end of the BIOS translated area. This generally happens if your disk is larger than the BIOS can handle (512MB for (E)IDE disks on older machines or larger than 8GB in general).

Try an update for your BIOS and/or move your boot partition to the front (or at least into the appropriate range).

See here *forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122656

But the boot partition cant be be smaller than 512MB because it wont be able to hold the Linux Install. wHAT DO YOU MEAN BY MOVING THE BOOT PARTITION TO THE FRONT?

M

No. My /boot partition is 50MB. Not a problem with that.
Problem is that your BIOS doesn't support booting from a partition beyond 512MB. This is something related to disk geometry. Is your PC quite old?
The two possible solutions given here are
1) Update your BIOS
2) Move your /boot partition within the first 512mb of the disk.

Yes the motherboard is based on the 845 chipset.
But I didnt select any /boot partition. It was just / and swap.
Would other Distros face the same problem while booting?

AFAIK

1.Boot partition must be 10% of your Root partition
2.Swap must be double of your system ram.

M

Your /boot partition is within /. So, you can either move whole / to the beginning or make a new /boot partition at the start.
It won't make any difference as to which distro it is cos it's the problem with the BIOS. Best way would be BIOS update IMO.