On 27/02/07, dan1 dan1@edenpics.com wrote:
dan1 spake the following on 2/20/2007 11:00 AM:
Hello everyone.
I am looking for a way to move a CentOS 4 installed production hard disk to another system (which has another hardware). The first has an nvidia sata controller (sata_nv), but the second has a via sata (sata_via). For all the rest of the hardware it can upgrade well I know, but if the sata driver is different, then the system doesn't boot because the proper driver is not included in the initrd file (grub still boots OK).
Here is the error message: Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel. Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting mount: error 6 mounting ext3 mount: error 2 mounting none switchroot: mount failed: 22 Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
Does anyone know how I could upgrade easily this initrd file to contain the proper driver, and even from another partition? Would it be possible to keep an old config-xx file and do an rpm upgrade which would automatically recompile a proper initrd-xx file for that new system?
Thanks for any help. Daniel
You could boot from a rescue disk, chroot to /mnt/sysimage, make sure that the proper driver shows in an lsmod, and re-install the current kernel rpm. That should redo the initrd. Somewhat easier than remembering the proper initrd commands.
Hello, Scott. Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried what you said. This didn't work. It did compile the new kernel, but has taken the other module, not the correct one for the new system. Maybe it did take the module from the old config file that it has found? The /proc/modules directory was empty when chrooted, so I don't know if the kernel installation could be done properly in such conditions, because the 'lsmod' when chroted was not able to open this directory to list the loaded modules. In any case, the initrd file of the new system (when working properly) is different than the one reinstalled on the chrooted partition to upgrade with the new module, and they should be the same.
Would you know what to do now by still using your interesting method?
It's been a little while since I've had to mess about with initrds but if I recall correctly, don't you just need to add the new module to /etc/modprobe.conf alongside the existing driver and then remake the initrd with mkinitrd?
You can actually see what mkinitrd does as it's just a shell script that pulls various bits and pieces together then creates a compressed CPIO archive.
So add something like...
alias hostadapter2 sata_nv
Rebuilt a new initrd with, for example...
mkinitrd initrd-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL.sata_nv.img 2.6.9-42.0.2.EL
Then add a new Grub entry to try booting with that initrd? If that doesn't help, there's a bunch of stuff in the list archives, just try browsing through anything with a mention of mkinitrd in it.
Will.