CentOS - Jan 2018 - Xen hypervisor on CentOS 7.4 with modern UEFI server not booting from grub

Hi,

I installed CentOS 7.4 on a modern Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 server
which uses UEFI. So far so good CentOS 7.4 works fine so then I went
on to install the Xen hypervisor by following the instructions from
the wiki (https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/Xen4QuickStart).

Unfortunately when I reboot after having installed the xen package the
system does not boot into "CentOS Linux, with Xen hypervisor" from the
grub menu prompt. I get the following error:

Loading Xen 4.6.6-8.el7 ...
error: can't find command `multiboot'.
Loading Linux 4.9.75-29.el7.x86_64 ...
error: can't find command `module'.
Loading initial ramdisk ...
error: can't find command `module'.

Press any key to continue...

The problem which I encounter here is exactly the same issue as
described for Fedora in the RedHat bugs:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1286317 with the exception
that for me it's CentOS 7.4 and that the workarounds as described in
that bug do not work.

Does anyone know how I can make my CentOS boot with the Xen hypervisor
using UEFI?

Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,
John

Why do you need UEFI? It does not add to security "a lot" but was
designed to block booting software like a "hypervisor". I used my Dell
notebooks to test our hypervisor identification software (HyperCatcher if you
are interested) which is bootable image. However, I was unable to boot it until
I disabled UEFI. As I understand it, it will block anything from booting
excepting original OS. Your Xen and our HyperCatcher are outsiders for UEFI.


Mikhail Utin


________________________________
From: CentOS <centos-bounces at centos.org> on behalf of John Naggets
<hostingnuggets at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 17:23
To: centos at centos.org
Subject: [CentOS] Xen hypervisor on CentOS 7.4 with modern UEFI server not
booting from grub

Hi,

I installed CentOS 7.4 on a modern Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 server
which uses UEFI. So far so good CentOS 7.4 works fine so then I went
on to install the Xen hypervisor by following the instructions from
the wiki (https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/Xen4QuickStart).
HowTos/Xen/Xen4QuickStart - CentOS
Wiki<https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/Xen4QuickStart>
wiki.centos.org
Scope. This guide will help you get from a baseline CentOS/x86_64 install to
running the complete Xen-4 stack in just under 10 minutes, this includes getting
your ...




Unfortunately when I reboot after having installed the xen package the
system does not boot into "CentOS Linux, with Xen hypervisor" from the
grub menu prompt. I get the following error:

Loading Xen 4.6.6-8.el7 ...
error: can't find command `multiboot'.
Loading Linux 4.9.75-29.el7.x86_64 ...
error: can't find command `module'.
Loading initial ramdisk ...
error: can't find command `module'.

Press any key to continue...

The problem which I encounter here is exactly the same issue as
described for Fedora in the RedHat bugs:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1286317 with the exception
With 4.5.2 Xen update, the system no longer boot - Red
Hat<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1286317>
bugzilla.redhat.com
Red Hat Bugzilla ? Bug 1286317. With 4.5.2 Xen update, the system no longer
boot. Last modified: 2017-08-08 19:49:12 EDT



that for me it's CentOS 7.4 and that the workarounds as described in
that bug do not work.

Does anyone know how I can make my CentOS boot with the Xen hypervisor
using UEFI?

Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,
John
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CentOS at centos.org
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CentOS Info Page<https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos>
lists.centos.org
This is a General discussion list for all issues CentOS. Security updates are
currently announced on this list once daily. This list is read and reply for
anyone that ...

On 01/30/2018 04:23 PM, John Naggets wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I installed CentOS 7.4 on a modern Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 server
> which uses UEFI. So far so good CentOS 7.4 works fine so then I went
> on to install the Xen hypervisor by following the instructions from
> the wiki (https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/Xen4QuickStart).
> 
> Unfortunately when I reboot after having installed the xen package the
> system does not boot into "CentOS Linux, with Xen hypervisor"
from the
> grub menu prompt. I get the following error:
> 
> Loading Xen 4.6.6-8.el7 ...
> error: can't find command `multiboot'.
> Loading Linux 4.9.75-29.el7.x86_64 ...
> error: can't find command `module'.
> Loading initial ramdisk ...
> error: can't find command `module'.
> 
> Press any key to continue...
> 
> The problem which I encounter here is exactly the same issue as
> described for Fedora in the RedHat bugs:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1286317 with the exception
> that for me it's CentOS 7.4 and that the workarounds as described in
> that bug do not work.
> 
> Does anyone know how I can make my CentOS boot with the Xen hypervisor
> using UEFI?
> 
> Thank you very much for your help.
> 
Usually not an issue with UEFI .. but with Secure Boot

You need to make sure Secure Boot is off.  It is sometimes called Legacy
Booting turned on, etc.

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On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 11:51:48PM +0000, Mikhail Utin
wrote:
> Why do you need UEFI? It does not add to security "a lot" but was
> designed to block booting software like a "hypervisor". I used my
> Dell notebooks to test our hypervisor identification software
> (HyperCatcher if you are interested) which is bootable
> image. However, I was unable to boot it until I disabled UEFI. As I
> understand it, it will block anything from booting excepting
> original OS. Your Xen and our HyperCatcher are outsiders for UEFI. 
You're thinking of Secure Boot, not all of UEFI.

For what its worth, UEFI is what we're stuck with, all modern hardware
uses it (and legacy boot is just a special UEFI bootloader).  Intel
plans to phase out the legacy bootloader in future releases of their
chipsets as well, so it wouldn't hurt to learn how to use UEFI.

-- 
Jonathan Billings <billings at negate.org>

I checked and secure boot is turned off.

Jonathan brings it exactly to the point: we have to face UEFI because
legacy mode is fading out, if I enable legacy mode I can't even boot
anymore through the network (PXE) as these newer network cards can
only boot PXE with UEFI.

In the mean time I have installed Ubuntu 17.10 with Xen and I was
lucky to see that this combination works with UEFI even Xen.


On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 2:12 PM, Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>
wrote:
> On 01/30/2018 04:23 PM, John Naggets wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I installed CentOS 7.4 on a modern Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 server
>> which uses UEFI. So far so good CentOS 7.4 works fine so then I went
>> on to install the Xen hypervisor by following the instructions from
>> the wiki (https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/Xen4QuickStart).
>>
>> Unfortunately when I reboot after having installed the xen package the
>> system does not boot into "CentOS Linux, with Xen hypervisor"
from the
>> grub menu prompt. I get the following error:
>>
>> Loading Xen 4.6.6-8.el7 ...
>> error: can't find command `multiboot'.
>> Loading Linux 4.9.75-29.el7.x86_64 ...
>> error: can't find command `module'.
>> Loading initial ramdisk ...
>> error: can't find command `module'.
>>
>> Press any key to continue...
>>
>> The problem which I encounter here is exactly the same issue as
>> described for Fedora in the RedHat bugs:
>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1286317 with the exception
>> that for me it's CentOS 7.4 and that the workarounds as described
in
>> that bug do not work.
>>
>> Does anyone know how I can make my CentOS boot with the Xen hypervisor
>> using UEFI?
>>
>> Thank you very much for your help.
>>
>
> Usually not an issue with UEFI .. but with Secure Boot
>
> You need to make sure Secure Boot is off.  It is sometimes called Legacy
> Booting turned on, etc.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
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> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>