Re: [linux-lvm] 2.6 upgrade - LVM version ? & root partition access problems...

["Peter Valdemar Morch" <swp5jhu02@sneakemail.com>]

AJ Lewis alewis-at-redhat.com |Lists| wrote:
> Someone made a new initrd creation script and posted it here:
> http://www.poochiereds.net/svn/lvm2/
> I can't guarentee it'll work, but i've heard good things about it.  Use it
> against the 2.6.5 kernel you compiled.

OK, so now I've tried to use that. After dealing with a missing 
/lib/lvm-200/lvm (mkdir /lib/lvm-200; ln -s /sbin/lvm /lib/lvm-200/lvm) 
  and a missing /bin/busybox (cp /sbin/busybox /bin) I now have a 
/boot/initrd-lvm2-2.6.5.gz!!!! This is progress!!!!

During boot of my freshly compiled 2.6.5 kernel+initrd, I get this 
message on the console:

RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 236k freed
Warning unable to open an initial console.
Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!

At this point all I can do is hit the reset button and reboot in good 
ol' 2.4.20. What do I need to do now?

It prints out a lot more than this, but I don't know how to capture it. 
(do you?) Also, it prints more than one screen, but I don't know how to 
scroll up, and the previous screens scroll by very fast... (E.g. it 
detects my RAID1 volumes apparently - that fills most of the screen I 
can see)

[root@valde linux-2.6.5]# grep -i console .config
# CONFIG_NETCONSOLE is not set
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_HW_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_LP_CONSOLE=y
# Console display driver support
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE=m
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE is not set

Uhm, what is the console that it can't open, and how do I fix that? Is 
this still LVM related? Or is it more of a standard 2.6.5 thing?

***********************************************************************
grub.conf entry
***********************************************************************
lvm2create_initrd.sh suggests that images should be relative to /boot/ 
but I could only get this far with images relative to / as in:

title 2.6.5
         kernel /vmlinuz-lvm2-2.6.5 root=/dev/ram0 
lvm2root=/dev/Volume00/LogVol00
         initrd /initrd-lvm2-2.6.5.gz

Does the missing '/boot/' prefix surprise anybody?

***********************************************************************
Maybe the following is relevant (I think not), but it seems to have to 
do with consoles...
***********************************************************************

During running lvm2create_initrd.sh, it prints out this:

lvm2create_initrd.sh -- adding required /dev files
don't know how to make device "consoleonly"

Well, neither do I! A little snippet from my console:

[root@valde root]# grep BASICDEV /sbin/lvm2create_initrd.sh
BASICDEVICES="std consoleonly fd"
verbose "BASICDEVICES: `echo $BASICDEVICES`"
(cd $TMPMNT/dev; /dev/MAKEDEV $OPT_Q $BASICDEVICES $BLOCKDEVICES)

So basically /sbin/lvm2create_initrd.sh has hardcoded the fact that it 
should:
/dev/MAKEDEV std consoleonly
among other params. But *my* MAKEDEV doesn't know how to make a consoleonly:

[root@valde root]# /dev/MAKEDEV std
[root@valde root]# /dev/MAKEDEV consoleonly
don't know how to make device "consoleonly"
[root@valde root]# rpm -qf /dev/MAKEDEV
MAKEDEV-3.3.2-5

-- 
Peter Valdemar M�rch
http://www.XXXXXXXXX