I have a KVM vm running CentOS-6.8 on a host also running CentOS-6.8. This instance is used for occasional development projects which require segregation. Thus it is seldom accessed.

At some point in the recent past this guest developed an issue with starting. Specifically these messages were found in the system log files:

/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_cm_xnet245.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet241.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [32.00 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet241.harte-lyne.ca_01’ [32.00 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet241.harte-lyne.ca_02’ [32.00 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet242.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet243.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet244.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages-20170312:Mar 10 16:31:06 vhost04 kernel: dracut:
inactive ‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet245.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB]
inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_cm_xnet245.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet241.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [32.00 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet241.harte-lyne.ca_01’ [32.00 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet241.harte-lyne.ca_02’ [32.00 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet242.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet243.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet244.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB] inherit
/var/log/messages:Mar 20 08:52:10 vhost04 kernel: dracut: inactive
‘/dev/vg_vhost04/lv_vm_xnet245.harte-lyne.ca_00’ [31.25 GiB] inherit

It appears that this issue was first encountered on March 10 as our log files go back much further than that and have no earlier record.

The symptom presented on the guest console during boot is:

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Press any key to continue…

Pressing enter brings up the following text display

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (615K lower / 3668980K upper memory)

CentOS (2.6.32-641.15.1.el6.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-641.13.1.el6.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-641.11.1.el6.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-641.2.1.el6.x86_64)

Use the ↑ and ↓ keys to select which entry is highlighted
Press enter to boot the selected OS, ‘e’ to edit . . .

The first choice repeats the Error. The second choice boots cleanly.

Looking at yum history I see this:

yum history Loaded plugins: etckeeper, fastestmirror, priorities, refresh-packagekit, security ID | Login user | Date and time | Action(s) | Altered
——————————————————————-