9.24 Oracle Linux 6 HVM Guest Virtual Machine with Hard Disk of 2TiB in Size Hangs on Boot

You cannot start hardware virtualized (HVM) guests running Oracle Linux 6 if the guest boots from hard disks of 2TiB in size.

Workaround:

  1. Host the contents of the Oracle VM Server ISO image file over the network so that you can access the required GRUB2 package files.

  2. Log in to the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface.

  3. Clone the Oracle Linux 6 virtual machine and ensure that it is not attached to a hard disk of 2TiB in size.

  4. Attach the 2TiB hard disk to the cloned virtual machine.

  5. Install the grub2 packages on the 2TiB hard disk that you attached to the cloned virtual machine, for example:

    # cd /tmp
    # wget --no-proxy /path/grub2-version.rpm
    # wget --no-proxy /path/grub2-tools-version.rpm
    # mkdir tmp
    # cd tmp
    # rpm2cpio ../grub2version.rpm | cpio -iumd
    # rpm2cpio ../grub2-tools-version.rpm | cpio -iumd
    # /usr/sbin/grub2-install -d ./usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/ --force /dev/sdb
      Installing for i386-pc platform.
      ./usr/sbin/grub2-install: warning: this GPT partition label contains no BIOS Boot 
      Partition; embedding won't be possible.
      ./usr/sbin/grub2-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be 
      installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and 
      their use is discouraged.
      Installation finished. No error reported.

    Note
    • Substitute path with the path to the contents of the Oracle VM Server ISO image file on your file system.

    • Substitute version with the grub2 package version contained in your Oracle VM Server instance.

    • Substitute /dev/sdb with the device name for the 2TiB hard disk that you attached to the cloned virtual machine.

  6. Create the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg configuration as follows:

    set default="0"
    set timeout=5
    menuentry 'Linux' {
        insmod part_gpt
        insmod ext2
        set root='hd0,gpt1'
        linux /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root
        initrd /initramfs-version.img
    }

    Note

    Update the vmlinuz and initramfs version accordingly based on the Oracle Linux 6 version installed.

  7. Re-attach the 2TiB hard disk to the virtual machine that you could not boot.

Bug 25655807