I managed to boot Linux from a multi-GB drive in a Siemens 486, years after the 486 era. There was a BIOS update to IIRC fully support somewhat (several times) larger disks than the original version and at least not choke on even larger ones. It allowed to boot Linux from a low position on the disk, and Linux had no trouble at all using the full size of the disk.
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I managed to boot Linux from a multi-GB drive in a Siemens 486, years after the 486 era. There was a BIOS update to IIRC fully support somewhat (several times) larger disks than the original version and at least not choke on even larger ones. It allowed to boot Linux from a low position on the disk, and Linux had no trouble at all using the full size of the disk.