up vote 3 down vote favorite
1
share [g+] share [fb]

I'm using VirtualBox, and have a vdi. It works fine on the virtual machine I originally configured for it, but if I clone it (with VBoxManage clonehd) or just copy it, create a new VM and boot it, I always get the same errors:

mount: could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
...
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Anyone know how I can fix this?

The VDI is an image of a clean system that I want to keep reusing to save me having to keep installing the OS into a new empty VDI.

link|improve this question
Confirm that you are using EXACTLY the same settings in your new VM as in the old one. One missed checkbox on one screen can cause this. – CarlF Sep 1 '10 at 15:32
I don't think so. I can't even mount the VDI - surely nothing to do with how the machine is configured in terms of RAM, CPU, networking, etc. I can't even get GRUB to enter single user mode – Andy Sep 1 '10 at 16:01
What you're saying here is not consistent. Is it refusing to mount, or is GRUB loading but not booting an OS? Try mounting your new VDI as a second hard drive on a known good VM. Can you access it? – CarlF Sep 1 '10 at 17:34
GRUB is loading but not booting the OS - it's during the init process CentOS can't mount /dev/root... – Andy Sep 2 '10 at 9:31
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

The problem is the layout of the hard disks changed. This is probably because the .vdi hard disk is now attached to the sata controller instead of the ide controller. just disconnect from the sata controller in the settings and reconnect to the ide controller then reboot.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Wow Peter McNeil's comment definitely worked for me:

Go to the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, right-click your CentOs Machine and click on "Settings".

Go to Storage -> Right-click the vdi in SATA Controller and click on "Remove attachment.

Go to the IDE Controller and click on Add Hard Disk

Retrieve your vdi file from your hard drive and boot your CentOS machine :)

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Probably an unfixed bug:

http://www.virtualbox.de/ticket/2813

link|improve this answer
Probably not, since you also created VDI dupes using filesystem copies. This would cause other problems (duplicate UUID) but wouldn't invoke that bug. – CarlF Sep 1 '10 at 17:33
The disk I copied wasn't associated with a VM, so no UUID dupes occurred. – Andy Sep 2 '10 at 9:30
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.