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

[brian.peters]

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 at analog.com