HOWTO: Stock kernels > 3.0.1 with XEN VPS

DanGray · 2012-06-24 02:20:22

There have been quit a few posts over the past year from VPS owners who have had the error below after updating from kernel 3.0.1:

Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sdaX ...
ERROR: device '/dev/sdaX' not found. Skipping fsck.
ERROR: Unable to find root device '/dev/sdaX'.
You are being dropped to a recovery shell

Generally, the advise thus far when a user has found themselves with an unusable VPS has been to chroot into the existing environment from a rescue image and downgrade the kernel back to 3.0.1.

This issue is now overcome, allowing users of XEN based VPS to update to the latest kernel. The below is tested with 3.4.4-1 from testing with mkinitcpio 0.9.2-2 and grub on a 64-bit Xen 3.4 HVM VPS . If anybody can add any advice to the below I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Before you start with any VPS update ensure that you can VNC into your VPS via an alternative IP address so that you can fix any problems. If the below goes wrong and you can usually only access your VPS via SSH you will be facing a full reinstall.

1. Edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst so that the root device is defined either by-uuid or as /dev/xvdaX (as opposed to /dev/sdaX)

kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/xvdaX vga=769 ro

2. Do likewise with /etc/fstab

/dev/xvdaW /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/xvdaX swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/xvdaY / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/xvdaZ /home ext4 defaults 0 1

3. To mkinitcpio.conf add:

MODULES="xen-blkfront xen-fbfront xenfs xen-netfront xen-kbdfront"

3. Update linux, linux-headers and mkinitcpio from testing
4. I couldn't get networking working using the ioemu networking frontend. Use netfront (accessable via your VPS supplier's control panel).
5. Reboot

Observations.... Additions....?

D.

Last edited by DanGray (2012-06-24 02:22:09)

fukawi2 · 2012-06-24 23:11:34

DanGray wrote:

Observations.... Additions....?

This is relevant to my interests as I'm having trouble getting Arch to run under Citrix XenServer at the moment... Having said that, it will get lost here. You should add it to the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xe … VM_mode.29

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-24 02:20:22

HOWTO: Stock kernels > 3.0.1 with XEN VPS

#2 2012-06-24 23:11:34

Re: HOWTO: Stock kernels > 3.0.1 with XEN VPS

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