[Libguestfs] Kernel panic with virt-builder etc.

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 08:15:53AM +0100, Oliver Frommel wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I am trying to write an article on virt-builder and managed to compile
> version 1.24.1 of libguestfs on Ubuntu 13.10 (I had mixed success with
> the git version and 1.25.x). When I am running virt-builder I am getting
> an error message:
> 
> virt-builder: error: virt-resize failed
> 
> Upon further investigation it turns out that there's a kernel panic when
> booting the freshly created image. Running the test-tool gives the
> following output:

[error message omitted]

The error here means that something required for the init script to
run isn't installed on the host.  You have to have the same packages
installed on the host as are described in /etc/apt/sources.list.  (It
won't work at all if, for example, you've half-upgraded the host to
some intermediate version of the distro.)

This might fix it:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
  sudo apt-get build-dep libguestfs
  sudo apt-get install `cat appliance/packagelist`

> BTW: the tools *do* require root access when running on Ubuntu because
> it (the distro) has the kernel images readable only for root. I
> understand that this is not libguestfs's fault, just sayin'...

Yes, unfortunately a well-known Ubuntu bug that we can do nothing
about:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/759725

You can do:

  sudo chmod go+r /boot/vmlinuz*

to get around this, but unfortunately you have to do it every time
there's a new kernel.

BTW I am providing high quality *Fedora 20* packages that are based on
libguestfs 1.24 + backports of all virt-builder features from upstream
libguestfs:

  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/libguestfs-1.24.1-2.fc20

These are probably the best chance to get virt-builder working.  We
don't have an Ubuntu packager, and don't really spend much time on it.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
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