Sounds like your root linux partition does not start on a cylinder boundary.
You should try other things before assuming this is the problem, since fixing
it requires messing with the partition table.  If you try to fix your
partitions, don't forget to do a backup first :-)

Note that DOS does not care where its partition starts.
---
Claude Morin
(that's "klode", NOT "clod"...French :-)
London, Ontario, Canada