BUG: Fedora 15 enters emergency mode after update

I suspect this is some kind of Parallels bug.

Twice after updating Fedora 15 I have found it wouldn't boot, instead entering emergency mode, from which it was apparent that I had a working system but with only the root partition mounted. The first time I simply reinstalled, it happened again yesterday and I decided to keep the VM around so I could investigate the problem.

The symptoms were odd, on logging into emergency mode I discovered that /boot and swap weren't mounted, as I could mount these manually that seemed not to be the basic problem. Also the forums weren't full of complaints and I suspect they might have been had Fedora had some kind of problem.

I decided to look for a Parallels related issue. Looking at mounted partitions in emergency mode the Parallels shared partition was also not mounted, I commented out that line from /etc/fstab and rebooted. This time the system came up and did an SELinux rebuild and informed me that Parallels Tools needed updating. When all this was complete I checked /etc/fstab and was surprised to discover that the line in fstab was now uncommented. The VM now works normally.

I don't know what went wrong but it is unacceptable that some kind of error mounting the Parallels shared partition renders the system unbootable. The Parallels Tools update also seems like some kind of smoking gun.

 

I found the same thing. This happened right after trying to install the Parallels Tools with 6.0.12092, so that seems to be the problem. Removing the "none" from /etc/fstab with vi (ugh!) created a bootable system. It problem happens only with 64 bit FC15, BTW.

After rebooting, I then had to reinstall the Parallels tools again (this time as an update). No problems after that, AFAIK.

 

I had same problem with 32 bit version.

 

I was incorrect in my previous post. Parallels tools are only partly working: no access to the Mac filesystem.

 

Same thing happened

Same thing happened with the Lion update of Parallels, same fix (comment out shared folders in fstab) applies.

 

For new installs...

I realize that this doesn't help if you already have the VM installed, but for those who are installing a fresh Fedora 15 VM, install system updates before installing Parallel Tools and you'll avoid this problem. The Mac filesystem even shows up correctly under /media/psf.

Of course, some future system update will come along in the future and then you'll be just like everyone else... +)

 

sorry to be thick...

Which system updates? FC15, Parallels or OS X? If FC15, not having used FC much -- how?

 

Sorry, I wasn't very clear.

The system updates are for Fedora. You can update it using the GUI (I think it's called Software Updates...under System Tools in the Applications menu) or on the command line using yum (yum update).

 

Yes indeed, this worked. Thanks!

(FWIW the GUI version failed to run, but yum update got through a few hundred patches quickly and without a hundred or so intermediate reboot steps -- take note Redmond!)

The Parallels tools install did not work correctly, however, until I removed the old partly-working version, rebooted and then installed again.

 

I came across this while researching the same issue. I thought I should mention that I found a solution that doesn't require reinstalling Parallels Tools or if reinstalling doesn't work.

I realized I started getting this problem after rebooting my Fedora VM the first time after updating the kernel (actually several weeks later). The problem appears to be an incompatibility between updated Linux and the version of Parallel tools installed. Unfortunately, reinstalling Tools doesn't always work for some new kernel versions. I got a compile error in the parallels update log when trying to update.

What you need to do is fallback to booting into the previous version of the kernel. This isn't as easy with Fedora 15 as with earlier versions, but during the boot process, press the Return key before blue bar appears. This brings up the Grub menu, and you can select the kernel version that worked.

Now, you want to boot into the older kernel by default, so when booting is complete edit the file /boot/grub/grub.conf file (using sudo or as root) and swap the lines associated with the earlier version of the kernel with the ones on top. For instance, if your grub.conf is:

Code:

default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.40.4-5.fc15.i686)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.40.4-5.fc15.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_fedora-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
	initrd /initramfs-2.6.40.4-5.fc15.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_fedora-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
	initrd /initramfs-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686.img

Change this to:

Code:

default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_fedora-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
	initrd /initramfs-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.40.4-5.fc15.i686)
	root (hd0,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.40.4-5.fc15.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_fedora-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_fedora/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
	initrd /initramfs-2.6.40.4-5.fc15.i686.img

When or if Parallels releases a new version of the Tools to support the newer kernel, you can swap the grub.conf lines back so you boot into the new kernel.

By the way, to show the grub menu on every boot, remove the line hiddenmenu and set the timeout to eg 5 (wait 5 seconds before booting)