Multibooting utilizing Kickstart & Grub (RHEL 3u6,3u8,3u9,4u6,...)
 

Good Afternoon,

I am experiencing some issues in configuring a multiboot system my group
uses to compile various releases. We have built numerous of these
machines in the past but have never spanned across numerical releases.
IE -- multiboots including RHEL 3 update 6, 8, 9 but not RHEL 4 update
X. Typically the process is pretty straightforward: We format the HDD to
have the correct amount of partitions, generate a kickstart file with
the appropriate specifications of --onpart=hdaX to point to the correct
locations, once completed we copy the kernels to the boot partition and
modify the /etc/grub.conf. A functional example of this can be seen here:



Quote:


# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=2
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$7bswo1$fob9vgNLIYi1LkMq4xo631
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-37.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/12
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.4.21-37.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.EL ro root=LABEL=/12
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-47.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/1
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.4.21-47.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.EL ro root=LABEL=/1
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-47.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.4.21-47.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.EL ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47.EL.img






Now I am attempting to span across versions to include 3 additional
updates from 2 additional numerical releases (4update5 & 6 and 5 update
1). The problem manifests after rebooting the machine where upon it
simply hangs on stage one with the GRUB in capital letters on a black
screen. I have managed to get it to attempt to load stage 2 but it hangs
at that point as well. An example of that /etc/grub.conf is located below:



Quote:



# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda7
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$7bswo1$fob9vgNLIYi1LkMq4xo631
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-50.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-50.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/12 hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-50.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.4.21-50.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-50.EL ro root=LABEL=/12 hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-50.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-37.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.4.21-37.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.EL ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-47.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/1 hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.4.21-47.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-47.EL ro root=LABEL=/1 hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-47.EL.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.6.9-67.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-67.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/123 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-67.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.6.9-67.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-67.EL ro root=LABEL=/123 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-67.EL.img





The most obvious troubleshooting option was to evaluate differences in
syntax possibly resulting in different versions of GRUB being utilized
in the various releases, but this was eliminated as no documentation has
hinted at a change in grub.conf conventions. At this point I am at a bit
of loss as to how to proceed and am getting a bit frustrated. Any tips
on multibooting multiple versions and updates of Enterprise Redhat? It
should be noted the disk is partitioned as such:


HDA1 -- Boot -- 500mb
HDA2 -- Swap -- 32GB
HDA3 -- Temp -- 10GB
HDA4 -- Win 95 ext -- size++
HDA5 -- RHEL 3u6 -- 10GB
HDA6 -- RHEL 3u8 -- 10GB
HDA7 -- RHEL 3u9 -- 10GB
HDA8 -- RHEL4u6 -- 20GB
HDA9 -- export/home -- size ++

The lines handling this configuration follow the following conventions
in the kickstart file:


Quote:



# Use the "GRUB" bootloader, install on the MBR
bootloader --location=mbr --md5pass=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
install
nfs --server XXXXXXX --dir /vol/distributed/redhat/3.0_u6/AMD64/WS

# Partition information
clearpart --none
part /boot --onpart=hda1 --size 500
part / --onpart=hda5 --size 10000
part swap --onpart=hda2 --size 32000
part /tmp --onpart=hda3 --size 10000
part /export/home --onpart=hda9 --size 1 --grow




Any and ALL assistance, insight, or guidance on this issue will be and
is greatly appreciated!


Regards!
--
Brian Peters
Analog Devices
brian.peters@analog.com

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