Problem booting RHEL 4 box - virtual media help?

[Tony Walker]

Hi Guys,

I have a RHEL box which gives the following error once the VGs have been activated:

/sbin/init: error while loading shared libraries: /lib64/tls/libc.so.6: file too short
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

I'm assuming there is some sort of corruption on the disk.

The problem I have is this.. I am unable to PXE boot the box and I can only use the virtual media option for mounting a CD. I've been able to mount a RHEL iso but the problem comes when it asks where the install image will come from. If I select 'local CD' it tries to open /dev/cdrom and I assume is unable to map the virtual CD.

Can anyone advise a way I might be able to get a shell and potentially look at fixing?

Thanks in advance.

Tony

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Tony,

The recommended solution in this case is to boot the system off of CD media as you have tried.

Disk corruption may be the cause, but you are attempting to look at the system in hte acceptable fashion.

You should however try linux rescue instead of an install image. This is the path to diagnosis, though you will probably be reinstalling the system.

As for a media source for that, I suggest NFS.

linux askmethod

Its simple, its fast and usually not filtered.

sEP

[Robert Walker_8 · Accepted solution]

Gday,

We have built machines via virtual media - these days however using NFS and Kickstart is better than the virtual disk shuffle but its possible.

Insert CD1 iso (this is preferable than using desktop drive as virtual media - as we sometimes got some problems with systems locking up on it). When linux prompt appears press return and follow as one would normally - the only aspect is the shuffling of ISO images as the install asks for different CDs.

Note: Some virtual media environments - Proliant G2s dont have virtual CDROM drives only floppies, G3/G4s may only do CD and not DVD sized images so this may be an issue in that it reads up to 700mb then dies?.

PXE boot requires setting up PXEboot server from what I have seen - I just use RHEL1 disk to linux prompt and then type

linux ks=nfs:kickstartserver:/path/to/rhel

System will then ask for appropriate ethernet adapter and if you dont have dhcp will ask for ip address. As for NFS copy mount isos -o loop and copy out contents to directory and establish NFS mount point which the (all) servers can use.

as SEP mentioned RHEL disk #1 allows for rescue mode which may give some clues.

Also from a desktop boot the RHEL1 cd and disk media checks to ensure the CDs are ok.

You can also get some VG problems with incorrect sized partitions or incorrect kickstart configs - although this is more so from building your own kickstart scripts and setting up your own storage environment.

Robert.

[Tony Walker]

Thanks both of you.

Unfortunately I had to re-patch this box temporarily to get this done but will refer to this thread in future!

Thanks,

Tony