[one-users] OpenSuse 11 as guest + ro boot parameter

Marcos Dias de Assuncao marcosd at csse.unimelb.edu.au
Sun Nov 16 21:32:23 PST 2008


Hi guys,

I am working with Alexandre Di Costanzo, who has sent some messages  
to the list before.

We are using OpenNebula with OpenSuse 11, Ubuntu 8.04 and Xen 3.2.  
Some of our hosts run OpenSuse whereas others run Ubuntu. We have  
created Ubuntu paravirtualized images and OpenSuse images to run as  
guests. We  do not have problems scheduling the Ubuntu virtual  
machines, but we have encountered some issues with OpenSuse. So, we  
thought that it would be interesting to post something about the  
problem to the list and check if other people have had the similar  
problems and get some help.

When OpenNebula generates the deployment file (i.e. xen guest  
description file), it appends 'ro' to the description of the file  
system to be mounted as root. In this way, if I specify an image to  
be mapped to hda1, the deployment file will contain something like  
"root = '/dev/hda1 ro'". We believe this is to force fsck to check  
the file system at boot time. Ubuntu images are pretty ok with that,  
but our OpenSuse images do not seem very happy in mounting the file  
system as read-only during boot.

We have performed some tests with some Xen guest description files  
for OpenSuse and it works only if we specify 'rw' as the boot  
parameter for 'root=' or nothing, which will assume 'rw' I guess. For  
example, one description file that works is the following:



kernel      = '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.18-0.2-xen'
ramdisk     = '/boot/initrd-2.6.25.18-0.2-xen'
#root        = '/dev/hda1'
root        = '/dev/hda1 rw'
name="susebox"
memory=256
vcpus=1
on_poweroff="destroy"
on_reboot="restart"
on_crash="destroy"
disk=[ 'tap:aio:/path/to/file/OpenSuse11.img,hda1,w']
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:01:01:06' ]
extra = '3 console=xvc0'



The configuration above works fine, but if we change (root = '/dev/ 
hda1 rw') to (root = '/dev/hda1 ro'), we get OpenSuse complaining  
about file permissions and finally hangs at the initialisation of HAL  
daemon. Part of the output is  shown below:



rm: cannot remove `/success': Read-only file system
                                                                       f 
ailed
Mounting local file systems...
mount: according to mtab, proc is already mounted on /proc

mount: according to mtab, sysfs is already mounted on /sys

mount: according to mtab, debugfs is already mounted on /sys/kernel/ 
debug

mount: according to mtab, udev is already mounted on /dev

loop: module loaded
mount: according to mtab, devpts is already mounted on /dev/pts

nothing was mounted                                                    
failed
mv: cannot move `/var/log/boot.msg' to `/var/log/boot.omsg': Read- 
only file system
Creating /var/log/boot.msg
Can't open or create /var/run/klogd.pid.                               
done
/etc/init.d/boot.klog: line 39: /var/log/boot.msg: Read-only file system
touch: cannot touch `/var/run/utmp': Read-only file system
chmod: changing permissions of `/var/run/utmp': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/var/run/utmp': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/tmp': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/tmp/.X11-unix': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/tmp/.ICE-unix': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/var/tmp': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/var/tmp/vi.recover': Read-only file  
system
chown: changing ownership of `/var/run/uscreens': Read-only file system
chown: changing ownership of `/var/run/screens': Read-only file system
Setting up hostname 'opensuse'                                         
done
Setting up loopback interface     lo
     lo        IP address: 127.0.0.1/8
               IP address: 127.0.0.2/8
                                                                       d 
one
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
Configuring serial ports...
Configured serial ports                                                
done
Activating remaining swap-devices in /etc/fstab...                     
done
Setting current sysctl status from /etc/sysctl.conf
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 65536
net.ipv4.conf.default.promote_secondaries = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.promote_secondaries = 1
                                                                       d 
one
Enabling syn flood protection                                          
done
Disabling IP forwarding                                                
done
                                                                       d 
one
System Boot Control: The system has been                               
set up
Skipped  
features:                                                                
  boot.cycle
System Boot Control: Running /etc/init.d/boot.local                    
done
blogd: no message logging because /var file system is not accessible
INIT: Entering runlevel: 3
blogd: can not open /var/run/blogd.pid: Read-only file system
Boot logging started on /dev/xvc0(/dev/console) at Tue Nov 18  
03:22:02 2008
Master Resource Control: previous runlevel: N, switching to runlevel: 3
Starting D-Bus daemonFailed to start message bus: Failed to bind  
socket "/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket": Read-only file system
                                                                       f 
ailed
Starting ConsoleKit                                                    
done
Loading CPUFreq modules (CPUFreq not supported)
Starting HAL daemon


If we try to start the same OpenSuse image with an Ubuntu's kernel,  
it actually boots, but then we have other problems with some modules.  
I am just wondering if anybody has faced a similar problem?

Also, just one last thing. About the NIC option in the VM template. I  
am just wondering, it might be interesting to add a description to  
the documentation saying which drivers use the SCRIPT option.

Thanks for your support,

Marcos


Marcos Dias de Assuncao
Grid Computing and Distributed Systems (GRIDS) Laboratory
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Email: marcosd at csse.unimelb.edu.au

-------------
"The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them  
the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will  
create enough money to buy it back again.
However, take away from them the power to create money, and all the  
great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear,  
for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you  
wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own  
slavery, let them continue to create money."

Sir Josiah Stamp
Former Director of The Bank of England




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