XEN: kernel panic after updating SLES 10 SP2 HVM to SLES 10 SP3

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3

Situation

After upgrading a SLES 10 SP2 HVM (Fully Virtual / Hardware Virtual Machine) guest to SLES 10 SP3 the VM (virtual machine) will no longer boot. It stops at error: "Kernel panic - not syncing: I/O error reading memory image."

Resolution

To work around this issue changes must be made to the kernel line of /boot/grub/menu.lstwhile the either the guest is running, or in text mode of grub if the VM is already in a failed state.

1. On the kernel line, change "root="to refer to the disk by device name (e.g./dev/hda2) instead of "by-id".
2. On that same kernel line, append"hda=noprobe".

That should be sufficient to get the vm booting, but consider changing the vif configuration within the vm configuration to specify"type=netfront". This will eliminate the duplicate nics that show up within
the FV guest.

Note: To edit the kernel line during the boot of the VM, hit the "Esc" key while at the GRUB boot menu. This will start the text mode interface. When the kernel line edit is completed hit "enter" to save and the "b" to boot with these new parameters. Remember that the change here is not permanent. Once the VM is running edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the change permanent.
A corrected kernel line should look similar to:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.60-0.58.1-smp root=/dev/hda2 hda=noprobe vga=0x314 resume=/dev/hda1 splash=silent showopts

Additional Information

The problem is caused when the upgrade automatically installs the PV drivers without configuring them.

The auto-configuration was included in subsequent support pack releases.

Disclaimer

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