Hey Guys,

First time posting here so be gentle. I'm very very new when it comes to linux but I'm handy with google so normally I can weasel my way out of any issue I run into. I've been working on this problem all day and I haven't been able to come up with a solution, so I figured I'd leave it to the professionals to solve. Here's my problem:

Let me know which other files you need to see in order to get a better grasp on the configuration of my system. Like I said before, super noob here.

Thanks!

-Sam

What distro? What's the setup? Did you setup the drives before the install or let the setup program do it for you?

I'm using RHEL 5.2 (64 bit) and I just converted the physical machine to a vmware server (ESXi 5.0) using the standalone converter (5.0).

Edit:
And my kernel is 2.6.18-274.

Something is definitely wrong when the conversion happened. Almost like the hard drive have gotten corrupted some how.Can you look at your fstab?

I most certainly can. In linux rescue, here is the fstab:

Thank you for your help, I really am utterly lost.

Did you happen to change the boot volume name? Try booting with the cd and select boot from hard drive. See if it boots then. If it does you need to recompile and new kernel and install it. What kernel is it using?

I didn't change the boot volume name, but the converter changed the configuration automatically so /boot is located on sda1 and / is on sdb1. On the old physical machine the configuration was one device (sda) with /boot on sda3. Willing to bet this is where the problem lies, either this or the LVM config.

You'll have to be a bit more specific, how do I boot from the hard drive after booting from the cd?

Kernel 2.6.18-274.3.1.el5

Thanks again!

Should be an option when the disc runs to boot from HD instead of the Disc. If the program did not change the boot volume correctly there is the problem. The machine is using the /boot on /dev/sda3 to boot the machine and when it tries to mount on that drive it can't because you are using it to boot off. That is why you are getting the error device or resource busy because it is using it to boot from.

I am not the most familiar with the LVM config but I would assume you could change the mount point for /sysroot from someplace within its config options. I would change the mount point to /dev/sdb and see if it will mount the volume there and continue to boot or create a new partition to mount /sysroot only into.

FIXED!

For those of you who were in the same situation as I was.... I'll post my solution.

The BIGGEST thing to pay attention to, in the VMware standalone converter (v5.0) make sure you convert the / hard drive as a BASIC DRIVE, not an LVM.

After that I followed the instructions here to reset grub.conf and redo the initrd.

I hope this helps anyone who was in my situation, I would have LOVED to find this thread during my search for answers.

-Sam

Awesome man glad you got it fixed.

Thank you for your help sir, it is much appreciated.

You are most welcome