Getting rid of Xen kernel on RHEL5.1?

Discussion in 'Installation/Configuration' started by sionathan, Jun 28, 2008.

  1. sionathan

    sionathan New Member

    I recently inherited a RHEL5.1 system that someone installed with the Xen kernel... how do i swap it for a different kernel?

    I used yum to download and install an alternate kernel, which appears to have worked properly:

    yum install kernel-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5
    ​

    The config-, symvers-, System.map- and vmlinuz- files for version 2.6.18-92.1.6.el5 all show up in my /boot directory now; but there's not an initrd-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.img file in there and i'm unsure if i need one?

    I suspect that the kernel DID get installed properly, but that i just need to update my grub.conf to select it. But i'm not sure how to do that... My current grub.conf reads:

    #boot=/dev/sda
    default=0
    timeout=9
    splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
    #hiddenmenu
    title Red Hat Enterprise Xen Server
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5
    kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-8.el5
    module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-8.el5xen ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
    module /initrd-2.6.18-8.el5xen.img
    ​

    That first "kernel" line that references the 18-92 kernel is a result of my first attempt to change the file. With that change, the system still loads the 2.6.18-8.el5xen kernel; but i (foolishly!) didn't make an initial backup of the file, and I can't remember what i changed it from, so i couldn't undo the change. Luckily, it still works as-is.

    I tried just adding the following lines as a 2nd option to grub.conf, but when i selected them, i received a kernel panic:

    title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.18-92.1.6.el5)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5 root=LABEL=/
    ​

    So... before i goof things up too much further, can someone please let me know how to do it properly?

    Thanks,

    » Sionathan
     
    sionathan, Jun 28, 2008
    #1
  2. topdog

    topdog Active Member

    You possibly need an initrd file what is the output of
    Code:
    rpm -ql kernel-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5
    If the rpm does not contain an initrd image you can create one using the mkinitrd prodgram
     
    topdog, Jun 28, 2008
    #2
  3. sionathan

    sionathan New Member

    Yep, that was it.

    There were no initrd images listed in the package details, topdog. So i made one and threw it into my boot directory, then revised my grub.conf to properly reference that file. Everything worked properly after that. I guess i just expected the package installation scripts to take care of that for me.

    Here's the relevant section of my grub.conf, for posterity's sake...
    title Red Hat Enterprise Server (2.6.18-92.1.6.el5)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5 root=LABEL=/ rhgb
    initrd /initrd-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.img
    ​
    Thanks!

    » Sionathan
     
    sionathan, Jul 1, 2008
    #3

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