Hello, I don''t know whether I am in the right list, but I will try! My main question is: Is it possible to debug initrd scripts during the boot process? Or, what the hell is wrong with my setup? I set up PE1850 with Debian/etch and installed the necessary drivers into the kernel. It boots, I should be happy. Then I installed Xen3.0.4 which wants to make use of an initrd image to be as flexible as possible. The drivers are not in the kernel, they should be loaded as modules. After trying now for a lot of time, the boot process ends up with Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) The grub/menu.lst has the following entry: title XEN 3.0.4-1 / XenLinux 2.6.16.33 root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/xen-3.0.4-1.gz dom0_mem=196608 console=vga noreboot module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.33-xen root=/dev/sda2 ro console=tty0 module /boot/2.6.16.33-xen-initrd The initrd image is built by: mkinitramfs -k -o /boot/2.6.16.33-xen-initrd 2.6.16.33-xen The modules to be loaded are defined in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and they are also loaded into /etc/modules: scsi_mod sd_mod mptbase mptscsih mptspi jbd mbcache ext3 reiserfs (PE1850 uses ext3, the virtual servers are setup to have reiserfs) I tried a lot of more modules without any success. Thanks for your time and hint to find a solution! Regards, Reiner _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> -----Original Message----- > From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com > [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of > Reiner Dassing > Sent: 03 May 2007 09:47 > To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com > Subject: [Xen-users] Howto debug initrd image? > > Hello, > > I don''t know whether I am in the right list, but I will try! > > My main question is: > Is it possible to debug initrd scripts during the boot process? > Or, what the hell is wrong with my setup? > > I set up PE1850 with Debian/etch and installed the necessary drivers > into the kernel. It boots, I should be happy. > > Then I installed Xen3.0.4 which wants to make use of an > initrd image to > be as flexible as possible. The drivers are not in the kernel, they > should be loaded as modules. > After trying now for a lot of time, the boot process ends up with > Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on > unknown-block(0,0)I was hoping that someone else would come up with an answer, but it seems that isn''t the case... So my basic answer is: A (good?) way to debug initrd problems is to compare the output during boot between a working and a non-working setup (e.g. native Linux and Xenified Linux in this case). That will usually indicate some driver not being loaded in the failing case (either because the driver doesn''t exist, or it''s bailing out on some error-condition). You may find using a serial port to log the boot-messages is helpful here. -- Mats _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Thu, May 03, 2007 at 05:55:12PM +0200, Petersson, Mats wrote:> > > Is it possible to debug initrd scripts during the boot process?You can manually extract an initrd, put binaries in there (either statically linked or als stuffing the libraries they need in), and i.e. run a shell out of initrd for debugging. Then a new initrd can be created and booted. However, i dont think you need to do that.> > Or, what the hell is wrong with my setup?I guess some driver is missing in your initrd, filesystem or raid- driver or the like. Your mkinitrd probably supports an option to stuff extra modules into the initrd, you provide the name. With your running system you could execute an ''lsmod'' and even try to stuff all of those modules into the initrd - probably only the controller-driver or filesystem are missing.. By comparing the output as Mats suggests you will probably also notice a difference of one or more modules not beeing loaded from the initrd that causes problems. Christian _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Hello, thanks for your answers and the help of Mats and Christian. With their help and the URL http://http://www.virtualconcepts.nl/xenbackports.php I recognized that initrd was not started at all, as the kernel config file did not define CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD. Basically, the kernel config file should contain something like CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT=16 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=8192 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y to enable initrd May be that is of any help for others. Regards Reiner _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Reiner Dassing wrote:> Hello, > > thanks for your answers and the help of Mats and Christian. > > > With their help and the URL > http://http://www.virtualconcepts.nl/xenbackports.php > I recognized that initrd was not started at all, > as the kernel config file did not define > CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD. > > Basically, the kernel config file should contain something like > > CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y > CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT=16 > CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=8192 > CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y > > to enable initrd > > May be that is of any help for others. > > Regards > ReinerWhy are you hand-building your own kernels? Or why not start with the kernel config files of a known working distribution? _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users