[Solved]vmware player gentoo client no disk devices

lyallp · Last edited by lyallp on Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:27 am; edited 1 time in total

I am trying to boot Gentoo x86 within VMWare vmplayer 4.0.2.
I have an existing gentoo instance which runs fine under VirtualBox.
I converted the VDI to a VMDK and created a VMWare player virtual machine with this as it's main drive.
This has problems, including not recognising network and display and being unable to install vmware tools due to compilation errors.
So, I figured, I would try a generic kernel.
I then booted the Gentoo minimal install cd in this VM, and installed a genkernel variation and setup to include the initramfs.
It boots up but whinges it can't find the root block device and asks me to enter the root block device.
I entered the 'shell' and looked around, and there are no /dev/hd* or /dev/sd* devices in /dev.

Any suggestions on why no disk devices are showing up, considering I am using a genkernel, which I thought found everything!
_________________
...Lyall

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 5:34 pm Post subject:

lyallp,

Using genkernel is like shooting at a barn door with a blunderbus.

Genkernel does not appy any science, it builds a fully modular kernel with almost every module known to Linus.

From memory, VMware wants one of the Fusion drivers for its SCSI device and I'm pretty sure that genkernel doesn't make them.
Plus eboot the CD in vmware and post the output of lspci, so we can see what hardware VMware is pretending to have.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

lyallp · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:31 am Post subject:

It's interesting.

I can see the disk when booting the install cd. I can scan the volume groups, even mount the LVM filesystems.

So I successfully mount /mnt/gentoo and /mnt/gentoo/boot

But, when I "chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash", vgscan no longer is able to find the volume groups, whereas if I drop out of the chroot, it can.

I can see the /dev/sda* devices in both /mnt/gentoo/dev and /dev (in the chroot).

What I am doing at the moment is booting the VM in VirtualBox, tweaking the boot and kernel setup, converting the disk to VMDK and then booting in VMWare, to test. I could have the disk as VMDK in VirtualBox and simply shutdown VirtualBox and boot VMWare, but I didn't want to have something break the VM completely.

So, I am kind of confused, at this point, as to why the LVM appears to work outside the chroot and not in. Additionally, if I boot the VM directly (no install cd), it can't find the disks at all, when I have been led to believe that genkernel generates the same thing as the install cd, and the install cd can see the disks.

Additional fiddling continues...
_________________
...Lyall

lyallp · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:27 am Post subject:

Solved, it appears the fusion drivers where the problem.

_________________
...Lyall