Description of problem: Unchecking virtualization support in pirut removes the xen kernel, but does not add any new kernel to the system, potentially leaving a machine without a kernel. "yum install kernel" from the rescue DVD installs a kernel, but fails to add a kernel entry to grub.conf. How reproducible: Unknown. This has been verified once on a fairly clean install. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install RHEL 5 with Virtualization support 2. Start pirut, uncheck Virtualization, and confirm. Actual results: The system won't boot because all of the kernels have been uninstalled. When attempting to install a new kernel through the Rescue DVD, (yum install kernal) no grub entry is added due to "grubby fatal error: unable to find a suitable template." Expected results: When pirut removes the xen kernel, it should check whether there is another kernel installed and if not, add one. When yum tries to add a kernel when none exists, it should have a default entry to add to grub.conf Additional info: This probably only happens when Virtualization added as a package at install. If it is installed later, the system will have another kernel to fall back on once the xen kernels are removed.
I saw the same error message from grubby after installing RHEL 5.4 snap #4 on ia64/xen/pv. However the guest OS was able to boot. install.log says: Installing kernel-xen-2.6.18-159.el5.ia64 grubby fatal error: unable to find a suitable template
On 5.4 Snap #4, default install with virtualization key: # yum groupremove Virtualization ============================================================================================================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ============================================================================================================================================================================ Removing: Virtualization-en-US noarch 5.2-11 installed 2.4 M gnome-applet-vm x86_64 0.1.2-1.el5 installed 121 k kernel-xen x86_64 2.6.18-159.el5 installed 88 M libvirt i386 0.6.3-16.el5 installed 7.1 M libvirt x86_64 0.6.3-16.el5 installed 7.1 M virt-manager x86_64 0.6.1-7.el5 installed 4.9 M xen x86_64 3.0.3-91.el5 installed 4.7 M Removing for dependencies: gnome-session x86_64 2.16.0-7.el5 installed 1.3 M gnome-volume-manager x86_64 2.15.0-5.el5 installed 1.9 M libvirt-python x86_64 0.6.3-16.el5 installed 431 k pcmciautils x86_64 014-5 installed 67 k python-virtinst noarch 0.400.3-5.el5 installed 0.0 virt-viewer x86_64 0.0.2-3.el5 installed 50 k Transaction Summary ============================================================================================================================================================================ Install 0 Package(s) Update 0 Package(s) Remove 13 Package(s) Running Transaction Erasing : pcmciautils 1/13 Erasing : python-virtinst 2/13 Erasing : gnome-volume-manager 3/13 Erasing : gnome-session 4/13 Erasing : xen 5/13 grubby fatal error: unable to find a suitable template grubby: doing this would leave no kernel entries. Not writing out new config. Erasing : kernel-xen 6/13 Erasing : libvirt 7/13 Erasing : Virtualization-en-US 8/13 Erasing : libvirt 9/13 Erasing : virt-manager 10/13 Erasing : gnome-applet-vm 11/13 Erasing : virt-viewer 12/13 Erasing : libvirt-python 13/13 1) yum will correctly remove the kernel-xen package since it is member of the @xen group. 2) grubby will complain about no other kernel packages and will not replace the grub.conf file although there's no other kernel on the system and the grub.conf is invalid (points to non-existent kernel). 3) yum will incorrectly remove pcmciautils, gnome-session and gnome-volume-manager I think nothing can be done for 1) and 2) but 3) should not be possible.
What are the exact modifications required to the grub.conf to get the newly installed kernel to boot? I made the same mistake of attempting to remove the virtualization components due to a conflict with the serial port and the Xen console. I have booted to the rescue disk and run the "yum install kernel" and it appears to have nstalled 2.6.18-164.2.1.el5. What modifications do I need to make to the grub to get it to use this kernel? Current grub.conf looks like this: root (hd0,0) kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5 crashkernel=128M@16M module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 hgb quiet module /initrd-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen.img
RHEL-6 yum has package protection built into core, I believe PK also has logic (although separate). This request was evaluated by Red Hat Engineering for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release. Red Hat does not currently plan to provide this change in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux update release for currently deployed products. With the goal of minimizing risk of change for deployed systems, and in response to customer and partner requirements, Red Hat takes a conservative approach when evaluating enhancements for inclusion in maintenance updates for currently deployed products. The primary objectives of update releases are to enable new hardware platform support and to resolve critical defects.