# HG changeset patch # User Dirk Olmes # Date 1491463401 -7200 # Node ID 8b5501bb7973803adb2b6065c3088cd8b8543c11 # Parent 0f9fffa05db1ed61d0addcbea9d052abebcf93d0 add blog post about genkernel diff -r 0f9fffa05db1 -r 8b5501bb7973 content/Linux/genkernel-vs-virtio.md --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/content/Linux/genkernel-vs-virtio.md Thu Apr 06 09:23:21 2017 +0200 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +Title: Genkernel with virtio drivers +Date: 2017-04-06 +Lang: en +Tags: Gentoo + +A colleague asked me to help analyze problems migrating a [Gentoo](http://www.gentoo.org) guest VM from a [Xen Server](https://xenserver.org) based host to a [Proxmox](https://www.proxmox.com) (KVM based) host. The Gentoo VM would not boot beyond the initramfs - it just died saying that the root device could not be found. + +Since the VM itself boots, [Grub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB) is fine. So I figured it must be a problem with the contents of the initramfs. I made sure that the virtio drivers were properly configured into the kernel - as modules. + +After a lot of poking around I found [a reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gentoo/comments/25fkvk/gentoo_guest_on_virtio_kvm_how_to_initramfs_via/) that mentions [genkernel](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Genkernel). I was not aware that genkernel is picky about the modules that are included into the initramfs. + +In the end I did not try the approach that is suggested in the reddit. I rather compiled all virtio drivers directly into the kernel. Easier to maintain, less fiddling with genkernel. Life's good again. \ No newline at end of file