centos7: boot error dracut-initqueue after converting virtual disk

Question

I installed centos7 on Ubuntu 16.04 KVM with qcow2 disk format.

To deploy my centos maschine I need it in vhdx disk format to support Microsoft's Hyper-V. I used qemu-image to convert it from qcow2 file format to vhdx.

qemu-img convert -O vhdx centos.qcow2 centos.vhdx

When I create in Microsoft's Hyper-V a new generation 1 vm with the centos.vhdx disk file I get an error like

dracut-initqueue[220]: Warning dracut-initqueue timeout - starting timeout scripts

See my bootscren: Bootscreen

How I can fix this issue?

ky41083 · Answer 1 · 2021-05-07T15:23:37.903

Run this in the VM before you clone it:

dracut --force --no-hostonly

After you clone the VM, boot it and run:

dracut --force

If you've already cloned the VM, you can connect the virtual disk to IDE to boot it (as noted by others) and run the first command. Make sure you shutdown the VM and re-attach the disk to the correct controller before running the second command.

The first command rebuilds the initramfs with all drivers available. The second command rebuilds the initramfs with only the drivers needed by the current system (default). Tested by going from Hyper-V to ESXi 6.5 w/ PVSCSI.

From: https://fedoramagazine.org/initramfs-dracut-and-the-dracut-emergency-shell/

Thanks, I had a working '0-rescue' option in my grub menu, and I was able to do `dracut --force` from there. — mwfearnley, Aug 18 '21 at 16:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '17 at 11:58

2

Download the Centos7 DVD, boot from the DVD and rescue a centos system.

Follow this: https://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/CreateNewInitrd

Be sure to skip to "to build it for a specific kernel version"

I have had the same going from Virtualbox to Hyper-V.

edited Jun 10 '17 at 11:58

Dave M

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answered Jun 10 '17 at 08:55

Robert Needs

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Not working if your partitions are not visible to installer. Like missing drivers. – Paul Paku Sep 19 '21 at 19:34

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 26 '20 at 01:50

In my case, I was working with a virtual appliance builtin with CentOS, created to be running on VMware in a format OVA. After to import in VirtualBox, I had the same issue "dracut-initqueue" after same time appears the message about the timeout. Someone had commented that start to works after change the controller device from Iscsi to IDE, I did that, and works. Now my appliance is running on CentOS.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 11 '21 at 16:50

My issue was importing a VMWare ESXi generated ova to VirtualBox. There was no rescue kernel image to boot so I wasn't able to rebuild the initramfs. Turns out I didn't need to... simply changing the VirtualBox appliance settings (controller type: PIIX4, Hard Disk: IDE Primary Master) fixed my boot issue.

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 10:02

I just had the same issue trying to complete a fresh CentoOS 7 install on a Dell Laptop. Found the answer here:

After the timeout error message finishes, you are entered to dracut commandline just type

blkid

Find the LABEL = ***** associated with the device you are trying to boot from and then reboot. In the selection page choose to edit or press whichever key it is to edit and then delete the name that is on there next to LABEL and add what you got from the blkid. don't change anything else.

this should fix it. if not try might a different usb creator.

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 24 '19 at 22:51

Instead of converting the QCOW2 image to VHDX I have converted it to VMDK. Then reformatted the VMDK and successfully brought it up in ESXi 5.5, but the I'm unable to bring it up in ESxi 6.5.

With 6.5 ESXi I'm getting the error /dev/disk/by-uuid/xxxxxxxxxxxx does not exist

Then I've found a workaround for ESxi 6.5. In the VM settings if we change the Virtual Device Node from SCSI Controller to IDE master it will fix the issue.

centos7: boot error dracut-initqueue after converting virtual disk

6 Answers6