openSUSE 2.6.34.7-0.2-xen no boot possible

**tgodawa** · 23-Sep-2010, 04:17

Hi,

I have done a fresh openSUSE 11.3 (32bit) install on a Lenovo ThinkCentre M58p 6234-1AG (C2D E8400, Q45 Express, GMA 4500, 82567LM-3).

First problem was, that the network card was not recognized, I had to build in a second one. Fortunately after updating the system and a reboot, also the 82567LM-3 was working.

With the normal Kernel 2.6.34.7-0.2-desktop the system works, but if I try to but with the Xen-Kernel 2.6.34.7-0.2-xen, the boot begins, but suddenly stops in a very early state.

The last messages I see are:

Doing fast boot
Creating ...

Then the screen goes blank and finaly in sleep mode. To reboot I have to power off and then power on again the system :-(

In the Grub-menu.lst originally I had:

Code:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title Xen -- openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.34.7-0.2
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /xen.gz vgamode=0x317 vgamode=0x317
    module /vmlinuz-2.6.34.7-0.2-xen root=/dev/...part6 resume=/dev/...part2 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317
    module /initrd-2.6.34.7-0.2-xen

I already tried to remove the second "vgamode"-entry, finaly all "vgamode" and "vga"-options and set "splash=0" but this did not helped, "nomodeset" is not doing anything too (I think it's only for Nvidia).

Any other idea?

Thanks a lot.

**tgodawa** · 23-Sep-2010, 17:03

Hi,

a short update:

I made a "zypper up" and a new kernel (2.6.34.7-0.3) was installed, unfortunately nothing had changed.

I have the same problem on my ThinkPad X60s, it tries to boot, says "Doing fast boot" and "Creating ..." and finaly I got a kernel panic :-(

On both systems I use XFCE4 as desktop, but normaly I only boot to runlevel 3.

Greetings, tg

**gogalthorp** · 23-Sep-2010, 18:42

Are you married to using Xen? Virtual box runs well and you can tun with the desktop kernel.

**tgodawa** · 24-Sep-2010, 03:12

Originally Posted by gogalthorp

Are you married to using Xen? Virtual box runs well and you can tun with the desktop kernel.

not really, I also use VirtualBox very much, but only for desktop virtualization.

I think it is not the best idea running some Linux instances on one system with VirtualBox.
And a filesserver or Asterisk on VirtualBox may result in "some" problems.

I already have running these and more as paravirtualized guests on my old server with openSUSE 11.0 and for sure I want to continue to uses these VMs on my new system. So it is no option changing the virtualization technic, rather I would switch to 11.2 (what I really would hate very much because of the quite short upgrade cycle) or use CentOS 5 (what I don't like too much for other reasons).

Thanks, tg

**gogalthorp** · 24-Sep-2010, 10:54

Well I don't run Xen but it looks like the Xen kernel simply does not like certain graphic cards. In fact graphics seems to be a problem with the newer kernels. Use 11.2 if it works for you (it is good for another year and maybe they will get the kernel/graphics stuff fixed by then.

Mean while you could help the process by reporting the problems in the most detail you can to bugzilla.

**philipraets** · 24-Sep-2010, 11:36

I'm having the same problem on my home-server. Switching to other virtualization solutions isn't easy (no kvm because pentium 4 doesn't have intel vt - no esxi because there is no linux client, no virtualbox because no gui on server and no para-vt - HyperV just ain't gonna happen here).

A bug report for this isn't easy, because the logging doesn't happen at the moment of the kernel panic, and setting up a serial console is a bit complicated.

So I'm sticking with 2.6.34-12 kernel because its the only working right now. I would like to see it fixed in the future, because I like xen and it's running perfectly here with 6 vm's.

**gogalthorp** · 24-Sep-2010, 18:16

If you don't report it it may never get fixed.

**tgodawa** · 26-Sep-2010, 15:06

Hi,

Originally Posted by philipraets

So I'm sticking with 2.6.34-12 kernel because its the only working right now. I would like to see it fixed in the future, because I like xen and it's running perfectly here with 6 vm's.

I also installed "kernel-xen-2.6.34-12.3.i586", but this didn't help.

Finaly I found this bugreport:

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=632730

And this was the solution, after changing

kernel /xen.gz vgamode=0x317

to

kernel /xen.gz vga=mode-0x317

booting the xen-kernel worked!

Thanks a lot, greetings,

tg