custom Linux kernel build failure in vmware workstation

Question

While trying to compile/build and boot custom kernel inside vmware workstation, while booting new kernel, it fails and falls to shell with error "failed to find disk by uuid". I tried this with both ubuntu and centos.

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Things I tried but didn't help

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1. check mapping by uuid in boot entry and existence in directory.
2. initramfs-update
3. replaced root=uuid=<> with /dev/disk/sda3

is it issue with vmware workstation? how can it be rectified..??

Answer 1

I had a similar fault with my own attempts to bootstrap Fedora 22 onto a blank partition using a Centos install on another partition. I never did solve it completely, but I did find the problem was in my initrd rather than the kernel.

The problem is the initrd isn't starting LVM because dracut didn't tell the initrd that it needs LVM. Therefore if you start LVM manually you should be able to boot into your system to fix it.

I believe this is the sequence of commands I ran from the emergency shell to start LVM:

vgscan
vgchange -ay
lvs

this link helped me remember

Followed by exit to resume normal boot.

You might have to mount your LVM /etc/fstab entries manually, I don't recall whether I did or not.