Bug 432929

Summary: linuxrc: Boot installed system with kexec
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE Tumbleweed Reporter: Dave Plater <davejplater>
Component: InstallationAssignee: Steffen Winterfeldt <snwint>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: Jiri Srain <jsrain>
Severity: Enhancement    
Priority: P4 - Low CC: mantel
Version: 201503*   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
Whiteboard:
Found By: --- Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---

Description Dave Plater 2008-10-07 08:47:21 UTC
I was playing with kexec and booting my kernel from the 11.0 retail rescue system and I think it should not be too difficult to implement a boot installed system on future installation media. It has the advantage of being able to boot whichever kernel you wish. It should be simple to enable browsing for kernels and troubleshooting various problems.
Comment 1 Bernhard Walle 2008-10-07 11:31:29 UTC
Steffen, that's Linuxrc, not kexec.
Comment 2 Dave Plater 2008-10-07 11:50:01 UTC
Case for usage:- https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=431703
Because of the catch 22 created by the new split kernel I could no longer boot my system. I used kexec on the rescue system to boot the new kernel and was able to discover that the bootloader wasn't updated.
The old boot installed system would have booted with the dvd or cd's kernel.
I am proposing being able to boot your installed system's kernel(s) from installation media boot menu.
Comment 3 Steffen Winterfeldt 2008-10-07 13:22:48 UTC
Hm, linuxrc already has a 'boot installed system' option. Didn't it work
for you?
Comment 4 Dave Plater 2008-10-07 13:44:40 UTC
Unfortunately I only have 11.0 dvd, I believe this feature returned with 11.1 somewhere and I have scarce bandwidth for dvd download. The old linuxrc boot installed system (10.3) booted with its own kernel and not the installed systems one, or so it seemed to me. I was proposing a method of booting with installed system's kernel. I apologize if this is already implemented in some way.
Comment 5 Dave Plater 2008-10-07 13:45:42 UTC
sorry missed needinfo checkbox
Comment 6 Steffen Winterfeldt 2008-10-07 13:56:26 UTC
Ok, I thought you were talking about 11.1 as that's what you filed
the bug against.

Anyway, I basically agree with you (see bug 373569) but I don't have time
to implement something.

Hubert, if you are interested...
Comment 7 Dave Plater 2009-01-21 09:56:35 UTC
Just going through a bootloader nightmare after updating 11.1 from rc1 to retail dvd. The repair system boot installed system doesn't work and the only way I can boot is via kexec from rescue system, it would have been nice to have an easy kexec function available on dvd to speed up the debugging of the process.
For example a script in rescue system to mount installed system root and and load kernel via kexec and then reboot.
Comment 8 Dave Plater 2009-02-20 08:57:49 UTC
The "boot installed system" hidden in "advanced options" in dvd system repair didn't work either. Changed to x86_64 and clean installed.
All thats needed is:-
kexec -l /mnt/boot/vmlinuz --initrd=/mnt/boot/initrd ;kexec -e to bypass a broken grub and boot installed system with installed kernel.
Comment 9 Dave Plater 2013-03-13 06:18:46 UTC
This feature is still needed or is there an easy way to boot a system with a damaged boot loader? I messed up mine flashing the bios.
Comment 10 Steffen Winterfeldt 2015-03-31 08:29:56 UTC
.