It's almost got to be something like that since ext4 file systems can handle large files. In my case, the files aren't unusually large but the formatted partition is probably more than grub can comprehend. You get past grub and all is well. Martin Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx> writes: > I haven't dealt with drives that large yet but was told anything above 1tb > had to be formatted with raid. If you already did that, this won't help. > > > > Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be used in > defense of liberty: > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." > -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) > > . > > On Wed, 28 Dec 2022, Linux for blind general discussion wrote: > > > Last Spring, I bought a 2 terabyte Samsung drive for backing up a > > system running debian buster. It's a great drive for running > > rsnapshot and it mounts and unmounts lightning fast. I have > > things setup so that the drive is plugged in to a usb port all > > the time but my backup script mounts the file system just after > > Midnight for backups. Unless I want something off of the drive > > such as the time I accidentally deleted a bunch of email archives, > > the drive is un mounted but it's device node, of course, still > > sits in /dev. > > > > The backup script mounts it's UUID on > > /var/cache/rsnapshot, takes a new backup and then umounts and all > > that works fine. > > > > I have set grub to use a serial console and /dev/ttyS0 is > > the port for that and I am getting good communication between it > > and a Raspberry Pi so one can tell what grub is doing when it > > boots up. > > > > There is a problem, however, and I wasn't sure exactly > > what was causing it because this system is on pretty much 24/7 so > > it may go for weeks between reboots. > > > > If I reboot it with the backup drive plugged in to a usb > > port, it hangs forever just after grub reports that it is loading > > the kernel. > > > > The only way to regain control is to have a keyboard > > plugged in and type Ctrl-Alt-Del or press and hold the power > > button for a few seconds. > > > > When the boot process starts, I unplug the 2 terabyte > > drive and get all the same messages via grub except that this > > time it reboots completely and one can log in, do work, etc. > > > > If you plug the 2-terabyte drive back in after bootup, it > > quickly registers itself and is ready to be mounted if one so > > desires. > > > > So the upshot of all this is that the system works > > properly and the backups happen each night but if there ever was > > a problem and the system rebooted, one would be up the creek > > because the system seems to refuse to boot if that drive is > > mounted. > > > > If I halt grub and start the grub command shell, I can > > list all the devices which are listed slightly differently in > > grub so the drive that is normally /dev/sda is listed as hd0. > > Another drive on that system is a 512-MB drive that holds the > > /home file system. One can do a ls command in grub and the boot > > drive which in unix is /dev/sda now is listed as hd0 with > > partitions of hd0:1 and hd0:5 > > > > The /home drive is hd1 with hd1:1 as the /home partition. > > > > The 2 terabyte drive shows up as hd2 with hd2:1 as the > > whole drive where the backups go. > > > > All 3 drives show up in grub's ls command and the backup > > drive passes fsck with flying colors. > > > > The backup drive is not bootable and there is only one > > big partition for it. > > > > I also set grub to pass the UUID of the root partition to > > the kernel. It works fine with that setup or just using the > > device name. > > > > Does this situation sound familiar to anybody and were you > > able to fix it? > > > > This could be a lot worse such as not working at all, but > > right now, a live person has to make sure the 2 terabyte drive is > > unplugged until booting is finished and then it's safe to plug it > > back in. > > > > Thanks for any and all suggestions. > > > > Martin McCormick > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list mailing list > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list