Xen kernel-panic

I repeadetly tried to install xen. The installation of the rpms, downloaded from the xen site, succeeded but when I rebooted into the xen kernel a kernel panic occured.
A message like no version for “struct_module” found: kernel tainted scrolled over the screen during the loading of the modules. A deeper look into that message showed me that it was not fatal and the kernel panic was caused by something else.

A lot of kernel panics are caused because they can’t find the harddisk. This happens because the correct module isn’t build into the kernel or available in the initrd. The same problem occured here. The xen kernel has not as many build in modules as a normal centos kernel and the needed modules aren’t automatically added in the initrd.

The solution is easy: include the needed modules in the initrd.
But which module is the correct one? That depends on the hardware in your system. You can start finding the correct modules by reading the dmesg when you boot that system with a working kernel.

Following command worked on my home machine:

[root@xen ~]# mkinitrd -v -f --with=ide-generic /boot/initrd-2.6.16.33-xen_3.0.4.1.img 2.6.16.33-xen_3.0.4.1

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 18:17 and is filed under Xen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Comments

  1. Planeta CentOS » Xen kernel-panic said:
    February 8th, 2007

    [...] Original post by Raskas’ blog [...]

  2. Rohan said:
    August 17th, 2009

    I am also getting Kernel Panic error whenever I try to start a new domU. I am pretty sure it has something to do with my hard disk parameters. Could you tell me in the Xen domU how do you decide on the ‘disk’ and ‘root ‘ parameters. Currently i am not able to get a clear picture from fdisk -l command which is like this:

    [root@vmtest xen]# fdisk -l

    Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

    Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
    /dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ de Dell Utility
    /dev/sda2 * 9 270 2104515 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
    /dev/sda3 271 283 104422+ 83 Linux
    /dev/sda4 284 9726 75850897+ 8e Linux LVM

    I will reallly appreciate your input. I am new to all this.

    Thanks
    Rohan

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