VMWare Converter Standalone Debian Squeeze Gives Kernel Panic

[deathsfriend]

I am converting a Debian Squeeze physical server to a VM using the VMWare VCenter Stand Alone Client.  All appears to go well.  The system moves over fine without errors, but upon boot, I get:

*Mounting /dev/sda8 on /sysroot

mount: mounting /dev/sda8 on /sysroot failed: No such device

mknod: /sysroot/dev/console: No such file or directory

mknod: /sysroot/dev/null: No such file or directory

mknod: /sysroot/dev/zero: No such file or directory

*  Switching / to /sysroot

switch_root: bad newroot /sysroot

[2.767345] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

1) I am using ext3 NOT lvm.

2) The converter completes 100% without errors

3) I have tried changing the iscsi controller type. 

4) I have tried rebuilding grub.

5) I can boot from a rescue disk and everything is there. /dev/sda8 exists and should be /sysroot.

6) The fstab is correct.

This worked flawlessly with my CentOS 5 and 6 machines. I'm not a Debian person, so i'm a bit lost here.

[ExpletiveDelete]

did you try to re-size any of the partitions or is it a straight P2V?

[deathsfriend]

I have tried it both ways. Resizing and straight P2V.  Both produce the same result.

[ExpletiveDelete]

did you check this KB? Its dealing with Redhat, but could also apply to Debian. SCSI, RAMDisk, maybe a few things you've already tried.

also:

This link is a straight "how to" specifically for Debian - maybe that would help.

[deathsfriend]

None of those seem to work either.  It really looks like grub is properly installed, but it refuses to boot. 

[h4lt]

I am seeing the same error when I attempted to P2V a Debian Lenny machine.  Have you had any luck figuring out how to correct this issue?

[deathsfriend]

I re-installed grub, and was able to boot an older kernel.

[h4lt]

Thanks for the info.  We followed this german youtube video to rebuild the intramfs and it corrected our issue.

Just in case anyone else is seeing this same issue.

P2V - PANIC KERNEL - YouTube

[tihonone]

Specially activated my communiti account, this one is the cure for such issues, at least for my case. It should be tested prior to other available steps on the Internet.

Thank you!