That is not my experience, but let's qualify that. Ubuntu grub 0.97 _does_
support GPT  with RAID1, except  for the boot partition which must, as
stated previously in the workaround,  be on a non-RAID partition for the
reasons you stated. Currently as far as I can tell GRUB2 does no better.

I'm also not entirely sure that the desktop update for GRUB made it into the
server version. Last time I installed 9.10 server it used GRUB 0.97 by
default but worked with RAID1 just fine except for the boot. But maybe it
defaulted back to 0.97 as RAID1 was used.

# grub --version
grub (GNU GRUB 0.97)
# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# / was on /dev/md0 during installation
UUID=43dd4718-11b9-4ab0-a584-69c3775d8f6a /               xfs
defaults        0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=dc4133c1-bac6-43e0-952d-190e10aebb40 /boot           ext3
defaults        0       2
# /mnt/boot was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=bbe887cd-da41-4770-a2c0-f9d0f0d7bf90 /mnt/boot       ext3
defaults        0       2
# /shares was on /dev/md2 during installation
UUID=4527056e-d0cf-4b2f-90ad-4d0f182545fc /shares         xfs
defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/md1 during installation
UUID=1153890f-d1d9-44f6-8605-7efdf0d388df none            swap
sw              0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0


Quote Colin Wilson
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-meta/+bug/436340/comments/23
"The solution in Ubuntu 9.10 is: *don't install grub2*. Continue to use
GRUB Legacy if you're using SATA RAID devices, since it's the only
version that will work in 9.10."

 Agreed then..., it _isn't_ a doc bug, GRUB2 needs updating.
Rather than
"How do I create a BIOS Boot Partition that will be suitable for GRUB?"
better question is:
"When will the installer create a BIOS Boot Partition that will be suitable
for GRUB?"

Thanks.
On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 3:34 PM, Jakob Unterwurzacher <email address hidden>wrote:

> GRUB1 does not support GPT, but GRUB2 does - Karmic uses GRUB2, it just
> needs this BIOS boot partiton (
> http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS_Boot_Partition ).
>
> --
> >2TB/GPT: Must warn if BIOS boot partition is missing (unbootable system!)
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/506670
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in “partman-base” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: partman-base
>
> (Ubuntu karmic, alternate install CD)
>
> If you manually partition a large disk (2TB or more), a GUID partition
> table (GPT) will automatically (and silently) be used.
> This means that you *have to* create a BIOS boot partition (
> http://grub.enbug.org/BIOS_Boot_Partition ), or the grub setup will fail
> and the system will be unbootable.
>
> There *really* should be a warning about a missing BIOS boot partiton (just
> like there is a warning about the missing swap partition, which is far less
> important).
>
> This will bite a lot of people as disks > 2TB become standard.
>
> Screenshot of "Fatal error" when "configuring grub-pc":
> http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2181/dsc01923o.jpg
> Screenshot of error messages on VT3:
> http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/9581/dsc01922yi.jpg , transcript:
> Jul  6 01:34:43 grub-installer: grub-setup: warn: This GPT partition label
> has no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible!
> Jul  6 01:34:43 grub-installer: grub-setup: error: Embedding is not
> possible, but this is required when the root device is on a RAID array or
> LVM volume.
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/partman-base/+bug/506670/+subscribe
>