Unable to get Guest / DomU Login Screen on XEN

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There was a strange problem I faced, while creating a custom CD out of CENTOS 5.5 32 bit and 64 bit distributions. The problem was, that any VM installed using those distributions, failed to show a login prompt when accessed through "virsh console guest" or "xm console guest" commands. After spending significant time searching for the mysterious reason, both the cause and the solution was found. Thanks to the links mentioned in the references section.

The symptoms and the problem

The problem was experienced when a guest OS is installed using command line tools such as "virt-install", without using any graphics or vnc console, in pure headless mode. The installation completes without a problem, interacting with the user completely/fully through the CLI/text interface. When the system reboots, the console shows the system boot up of the virtual machine, and stops right after the last service is started (sometimes SSH, or crond), and stops without displaying a login prompt. When the virtual machine is tried to be accessed through "virsh console guest" or "xm console guest" commands, the login prompt does not show up. The system seems to be stuck. However, the same system (virtual machine) is accessible through SSH. (One can find the IP of the newly installed machine from the /var/log/messages of the physical host, or the dhcp server). Any other services on this VM are perfectly accessible through it's IP. This proves that the only problem is with the login prompt.

This link helped obtain a login prompt on the virtual machine, manually. The problem is the absence of kudzu rpm and the kudzu service.


References

Retrieved from "http://cooker.wbitt.com/index.php/Unable_to_get_Guest_/_DomU_Login_Screen_on_XEN"
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