Issue Installing AlmaLinux 9.4 on VMware 7 VM – Kernel Panic and CPU Compatibility Errors

[AlanW]

Hello everyone,

I’m attempting to install AlmaLinux 9.4 on a virtual machine in VMware 7 (specifically VMware ESXi 7.x), but I’m encountering errors that I can’t seem to resolve. Here’s what I’m seeing in the error output:

• Errors Noted During Boot:
  • integrity: Problem loading X.509 certificate -126
  • Fatal glibc error: CPU does not support x86-64-v2
  • Kernel panic with the message: Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00007f00
• System Information:
  • Host Platform: VMware ESXi 7.x
  • Host CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Silver 4116 CPU @ 2.10GHz
  • VM BIOS Version: VMW71.00V.18227214.B64.2106252220
  • Kernel version during boot: 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64

Steps Taken:

• I’ve checked the VM’s CPU compatibility settings and tried enabling/disabling certain features, but the issue persists.
• The error CPU does not support x86-64-v2 seems to suggest a compatibility problem with the virtual CPU settings or possibly with the glibc version in AlmaLinux 9.4.

Questions:

1. Has anyone successfully installed AlmaLinux 9.4 on VMware 7 with an Intel Xeon Silver 4116 CPU, and if so, were any specific CPU configurations required?
2. Are there any known compatibility issues between AlmaLinux 9.4 and VMware 7 that might cause this x86-64-v2 CPU error?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help!

[AlanW]

Here is what I was getting when I try to install off the ISO.

[AlanW]

I believe the issue with this was VMware EVC enabled on the cluster. The mode was not compatible. So, I needed to change it to mode Nehalem from mode Merom. Or disable VMware EVC if not needed.