Hello Sven. Thanks for the insight. I actually just came across the kernel descriptions by accident and then decided based on those description to install the default kernel on the scientific simulation systems. So the easiest way for me to fix the reported problem is to just select the desktop kernel again, as I already set up ~30 machines like that without problems. Still there seems to be a problem in the combination of forceboot=true and kernel!=desktop with the bootloader for stage2. Best regards, Joschi Am 12.05.2011 um 23:18 schrieb "Sven-Thorsten Dietrich" :

On Thu, 2011-05-12 at 18:13 +0200, Joschi Brauchle wrote:

...

Hi everyone,

I have the following problem with an AutoYast installation of Opensuse 11.4: Some of my machine hang when Yast tries to start the installed kernel via the kexec command (original problem), thus I decided to put ------ <general> <mode> <forceboot config:type="boolean">true</forceboot> </mode> </general> ------ in my XML file. This forces Yast to reboot the machine after the first installation stage. So far so good (circumventing the original problem).

Now I decided to install the default instead of the desktop kernel, because these are headless machines for scientific simulations, this I don't need the desktop optimizations of the desktop-kernel.

Hi Joschi,

Thanks for the bug report.

I just wanted to make a comment regarding the the "Desktop" Kernel naming.

The naming comes from in-Kernel locking changes that the Kernel developers at one time thought might improve audio-video streaming as one might use on the Desktop. This may be a bit unfortunate as its confusing to many users and doesn't really improve things notably on the Desktop ;)

In other words, if you use the Desktop Kernel, your scientific app should be just fine, and its unlikely that you will notice any difference in performance nor and difference regarding compatibility oir drivers - all the same.

Just thought I'd point that out.

Regards,

Sven

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Thus I put ------ <software> <!-- Use the DEFAULT instead of DESKTOP kernel for servers --> <kernel>kernel-default</kernel> </software> ------ in the XML file.

But now, when I install these machines with Autoyast, I hangs during the reboot after stage one (second and bigger problem)!! The error message is some what like "mount: unknown filesystem type 'ext4' -- could not mount root filesystem" when the kernel tries to mount the root partition (formatted with ext4).

I diagnosed the problem somewhat and discovered that although I want the default kernel to be used, Yast installs and tries to boot the DESKTOP kernel for stage 2 of the installation process. This does not work, because only the modules for the DEFAULT kernel were installed before, thus the desktop kernel cannot find the ext4 module (or whatever it need to mount ext4).

I have made some screenshots of the GRUB menu when the stage2 process is started and it shows as the first entry "Desktop -- openSUSE 11.4 - ..." and this is what it tries to boot. Only the third option is "openSUSE 11.4", which looks like the default kernel...

Did anybody ever experience this problem? Uwe: should I create a bugreport about this?

I have taken some screenshots of the boot process of stage 2 with the exact error message if needed, but I think the problem should become clear without them!

Best regards, Joschi

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Hi, yes, the thread you mentioned describes exactly the same problem! Well, of course I could modify the <bootloader> section and add the kernel used by live system as the first option. The problem here is that I would have to guess the kernel of the live system (ok, now I know it uses "desktop" but maybe the naming scheme will change in the future?). So I think it should be the other way round: the live system should interpret the <kernel> setting and adapt its bootloader for stage2! BTW: What happens if I don't use <forceboot> ? I didn't test this so far... Usually, the live system tries to kexec into the installed kernel (which would be the default kernel in my case), right? - Joschi On 05/13/2011 08:49 AM, 686f6c6d wrote:

Hi, if you change the kernel during install, IIRC, grub/grub-install does not "get it" and creates boot entries for the live system, which can result in all kinds of errors; you have to correct the grub entries yourself. You can also try adding the ext4 module for that specific kernel (which is basically just the same, adding/editing the<bootloader> section), but I would assume that grub error message is just misleading.

Please see the discussion in this thread: http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-autoinstall/2010-05/msg00003.html

tty, 686f6c6d

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On 05/13/2011 10:02 AM, Uwe Gansert wrote:

on Thursday 12 May 2011 Joschi Brauchle wrote:

...

Uwe: should I create a bugreport about this?

yes please, then it won't get lost. But I don't know yet when I'll find the time to look into it, so we need a workaround for the moment. I hope installing desktop kernel or so is okay for you for now.

Sure, there are many workarounds at the moment: - walk up to the hung machine and reboot, manuelly select the "default" kernel in grub menu - set grub menu explicitly in XML file to default to the "default" kernel - add missing modules for "desktop" kernel somehow - install the "desktop" kernel So take your time, its very low priority. I just wanted to report the problem! -Joschi -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-autoinstall+help@opensuse.org