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10 Replies Last post: May 11, 2009 2:49 AM by czutra  

P2V of old Red Hat machine posted: May 11, 2009 1:03 AM

Click to view czutra's profile Novice
czutra
6 posts since
May 11, 2009

I have an old Gateway PC that runs RedHat 7.3 (Kernel 2.4.20-28.7). I was able to use the P2V bootable CD and moved it to an ESX server. When I start the new guest there is a linux kernel error. I read some article about it, and the reason is that the source machine had an IDE disk while the virtual one is on SCSI. So I ran mkinitrd, changed the grub.conf so that it will use sda instead of hda. Still, same problem - cant boot.

anyone with similar experience? any ideas how to resolve this?

Thanks

Chovav

Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

1. May 11, 2009 1:22 AM in response to: czutra
Click to view AndreTheGiant's profile Guru
AndreTheGiant
5,916 posts since
Aug 28, 2008
You have to change the /etc/fstab too. Also check the modules list and ensure that the SCSI module is configured.

Andrea
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Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

2. May 11, 2009 1:35 AM in response to: AndreTheGiant
Click to view czutra's profile Novice
czutra
6 posts since
May 11, 2009
fstab was changed as well, even though it use label=/ and label=/boot for 2 partitions. The swap was changed from hda2 to sda2. How can I check the SCSI module?

Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

3. May 11, 2009 1:39 AM in response to: czutra
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AndreTheGiant
5,916 posts since
Aug 28, 2008
Check the /etc/modules.conf file.
If you start from CD in rescue mode you can boot the VM and mount the disk?
I ask you because the distro is very old, and I'm not sure that is working fine in VM. (for example, there was several issue on old RedHat and clock shift)

Andrea
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Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

4. May 11, 2009 1:55 AM in response to: AndreTheGiant
Click to view czutra's profile Novice
czutra
6 posts since
May 11, 2009

I can boot the VM with the 7.3 ISO file of cd1. The content of /etc/modules.conf is this:

alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc

alias eth0 3c59x

alias usb-controller usb-uhci

alias eth1 via-rhine

alias char-major-89 i2c-dev

that's all

Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

5. May 11, 2009 2:11 AM in response to: czutra
Click to view AndreTheGiant's profile Guru
AndreTheGiant
5,916 posts since
Aug 28, 2008
There isn't the SCSI controller.
I suggest you to do a minimal installation in a second VM, then copy the corrent /etc/modules.conf row.

Andrea
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Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

6. May 11, 2009 2:13 AM in response to: AndreTheGiant
Click to view czutra's profile Novice
czutra
6 posts since
May 11, 2009

I will try it

Thanks

Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

7. May 11, 2009 2:30 AM in response to: czutra
Click to view wila's profile Virtuoso
wila
3,266 posts since
Jun 27, 2006
Hi,
If you still have the old physical setup running as well,then have a look at this thread: How to convert a phycial Red Hat Linux 7.1 to a virual machine - not supported by VMWare converter?


--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
Visit the VMware developers wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

8. May 11, 2009 2:43 AM in response to: wila
Click to view czutra's profile Novice
czutra
6 posts since
May 11, 2009

I used the bootable CD to perform the P2V. Recreating initrd, modifying grub.conf and fstab did not do the job. I had added the BusLogic to the modules.conf and rebuild initrd. During the boot the scsi drive was recognized and the boot process showed me the 3 partitions - sda1, sda2 and sda3. Still go the following messages:

creating root device

Mounting root filesystem

mount: error 5 mounting ext3

pivotroot: pivit_root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed: 2


Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

9. May 11, 2009 2:46 AM in response to: czutra
Click to view AndreTheGiant's profile Guru
AndreTheGiant
5,916 posts since
Aug 28, 2008
In /etc/fstab try to use the real name of the device instead of the label.


Andrea
**if you found this or any other answer useful please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers

Re: P2V of old Red Hat machine

10. May 11, 2009 2:49 AM in response to: czutra
Click to view czutra's profile Novice
czutra
6 posts since
May 11, 2009

finally problem was resolved!!! missed a line on the grub.conf.

thanks all

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