Kernel panic when I installed Update 4 on a Red hat 4 Virtual machine...

[CMCC]

I have a virtual machine with 4 GB virtual memory, 2 virtual CPU and 70 GB virtual disk. I've installed on it Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4. This is on ESX 3.0.1

When I installed the update 4, the machine reboot automatically and when it's restarting I can see this message in the black screen:

Booting ‘Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.6.9-42.EL)’

Root (hd0 , 0)

Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

Kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

\[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x16dd92]

initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img

\[Linux-initrd @ 0x37ef3000, 0xfc84a bytes]

Uncompressing Linux... OK, booting the kernel.

PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 4 of device 0000:00:07.1

Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting

Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...

No volume groups found

Volume group “VolGroup00” not found

ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 302)

mount: error 6 mounting ext3

mount: error 2 mounting none

swithchroot: mount failed:22

umount /initrd/dev failed:2

Kernel panic – not syncing: Attempted to kill init! [/b]

[masaki]

This should be an RH issue not an ESX one but look at this thread:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=16865&messageID=183799

[masaki]

and this one too:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=432663

[eeiseman]

Which SCSI controller are you using? If you're using LSI Logic, I wonder if the Update 4 install didn't recreate your initrd file correctly.

Assuming you're using LSI Logic:

Boot linux rescue CD

chroot /mnt/sysimage

Edit /etc/modules.conf and set scsi_hostadapter to mptscsih

mv the existing /boot/initrd-2.6.9-42-EL.img file to a backup

mkinitrd --preload mptbase /boot/initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img 2.6.9-42.EL

reboot

If the initrd doesn't have the correct SCSI driver in it you won't find the root filesystem.

[Daniel_Herrero]

We have som RHELAS4U4 running in ESX 3.0.1 vmachines.

We have BusLogic configured as SCSI bus, and have no problems booting them.

You can try changing the SCSI bus type, but I advice you to backup your virutal disk before that.

[CMCC]

I have LSIlogic... so that can be the problem...

I didn't try yet... after I try I'll post the result.

Thanks you all!!!

[CMCC]

We have som RHELAS4U4 running in ESX 3.0.1

vmachines.

We have BusLogic configured as SCSI bus, and have no

problems booting them.

You can try changing the SCSI bus type, but I advice

you to backup your virutal disk before that.

Can I create a new virtual machine with BusLogic and then use the same virtual disk of the Red Hat I have installed??

Is somewhere in the configuration where I must change the controller name to do this? or I must reinstall the Red Hat in the new virtual machine?

[CMCC]

did you install Red Hat directly on a VM with BusLogic or did you try it first on a VM with LsiLogic?

[CMCC]

Which SCSI controller are you using? If you're using

LSI Logic, I wonder if the Update 4 install didn't

recreate your initrd file correctly.

Assuming you're using LSI Logic:

Boot linux rescue CD

chroot /mnt/sysimage

I couldn't mount sysimage,

there is an error that says that it cannot find sysimage...

[Daniel_Herrero]

I installed directly on virtual machine with BusLogic. If you have problems, you may need BusLogic driver disk:

http://www.vmware.com/support/esx2/doc/esx2-rhel4u4-dd-rpm.html

(It's for ESX2.x, but RHELAS4U4 does not include buslogic driver)

[bertdb]

first of all, select your previous kernel version in the GRUB boot screen. That should get you back to your running system. Then check what mkinitrd does. Someone already gave the command to remake the initrd (with the --preload option for mptbase), and if you add -v you'll see what it does, which modules it includes.

The module for your configured SCSI adapter (buslogic or lsilogic) needs to be in there. You can check the name of the module you need by executing

grep scsi /etc/modules.conf

[CMCC]

Yesterday I try what you recommended me, but it gave me kernel panic error again when I installed Update 4... It seemed to be the answer to my plea but it didn't work!!!

I think I did just the way it says on the page... but I'll try again and again...

did you just installed in the simple way and it worked?? not in this way?

[wila]

You did setup a new machine for that with a buslogic adapter right?

Down here i've installed CentOS4 U4 using buslogic drivers the easy way, insert CD... tap tap tap.. .... reboot.

Since they are basically the same OS i'm a bit surprised that you are having so much trouble with installing the supported version of the OS.

[CMCC]

I really don't know...

I created a new machine with BusLogic, I even installed with a driver disk containing the bus logic controller, and everything goes ok...

But, when I install Update 4 and reboot, it gives me Kernel Panic error!! I don't know what else to do!

I'm not using SAN or iSCSI, those really have problems with RHEL 4 U4, but I'm just installing in a simple virtual machine on ESX 3.0.1

[Daniel_Herrero]

Once you load BusLogic driver and begin installing RHELAS4U4, when you get to the disk partition menu, do you get any warning or error messages? Can you create partitions and complete installation?

The previous lines from the kernel panic message you get, are the same you got with the other dirver? If not, can you post them?

[CMCC]

Once you load BusLogic driver and begin installing

RHELAS4U4, when you get to the disk partition menu,

do you get any warning or error messages? Can you

create partitions and complete installation?

If I don't use the driver disk when I apply the update 4, I get a message that says that there is no disk. But when I use the driver disk, I can complete installation without problem, but then the kernel panic error appears...[/b]

The previous lines from the kernel panic message you

get, are the same you got with the other dirver? If

not, can you post them?

it's always the same error as in the first part of my topic...[/b]

[CMCC]

I try it in this way

http://www.vmware.com/support/esx2/doc/esx2-rhel4u4-dd

and happened this:

In my laboratory with ESX 3.0.1 I could do it, it was a successfully installation and upgrading.

But, when I did it on another ESX 3.0.1 it didn't work and the error messages looks the same but change in some ways:

Changes are in black...

Booting ‘Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.6.9-42.EL)’

Root (hd0 , 0)

Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

Kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x15f464[/b]]

initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.[b]ELsmp.img[/b] (this part change 'cause the buslogic rpm)

\[Linux-initrd @ 0x37ef3000, 0xfc84a bytes]

Uncompressing Linux... OK, booting the kernel.

PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 4 of device 0000:00:07.1

Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting

Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...

No volume groups found

Volume group “VolGroup00” not found

ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 302)

mount: error 6 mounting ext3

mount: error 2 mounting none

swithchroot: mount failed:22

umount /initrd/dev failed:2

Kernel panic – not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

[CMCC]

Compare to this:

Booting ‘Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.6.9-42.EL)’

Root (hd0 , 0)

Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

Kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x16dd92[/b]]

initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.[b]EL.img[/b]

\[Linux-initrd @ 0x37ef3000, 0xfc84a bytes]

Uncompressing Linux... OK, booting the kernel.

PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 4 of device 0000:00:07.1

Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting

Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...

No volume groups found

Volume group “VolGroup00” not found

ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 302)

mount: error 6 mounting ext3

mount: error 2 mounting none

swithchroot: mount failed:22

umount /initrd/dev failed:2

Kernel panic – not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

[wila]

Sounds like the big difference here is that you are applying update 4 on an existing RHEL4 install whereas we have been using a RHEL4U4 install so that you don't have to apply the update afterwards.

Seems like your update is borking the install. So unless you are capable of rolling your own kernel modules for the scsi driver in there, you're toast.

The driver disk is supposed to do this for you, so it seems that something isn't standard in your setup.

[CMCC]

for the error that appears at the initial part of the topic, i installed the update on a normal RHEL4 installation

In the new error I applied the update on a new RHEL4 installation with the driver disk and the BusLogic rpm as is said in the link I indicated above.

the big deal is that I use this last to install another virtual machine to try out and it was a successfully installation...