SDLinux - Collecting preboot logs on a VM with no USB access

SDLinux - Collecting preboot logs on a VM by using an attached disk

Step 1: Attach a second disk to VM

1. Add or attach a new virtual hard disk on the VM (the disk can be as small as 1G)

2. Login to the OS, open terminal and prep/format the disk for use (example):

   1. parted -s /dev/sdb mklabel msdos

   2. parted -a opt /dev/sdb mkpart primary xfs 0% 100%

   3. mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1

Step2: Mount the disk at pre-mount

1. Reboot client machine

2. At start-up press 'e' at the grub menu and add the following parameters in the kernel command line: “rd.break=pre-mount rd.debug=1“ (see example below)

1. Press ctrl-x to continue

2. Once it drops to pre-mount shell, mount the disk to /mnt

   1. mkdir /mnt

   2. mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

   3. check and confirm drive is mounted with ‘lsblk’ command

• 1. type 'exit' and press enter to exit out of shell and bring you back to preboot

1. At preboot, press F7 to collect support logs

1. This should allow them to save the support logs at /mnt

Step3: Login to OS and grab the logs

1. After saving the preboot logs, login at preboot manually

2. Login to the OS and open terminal

3. Mount /dev/sdb1 again and grab the preboot logs saved there