Problem
RedHat Enterprise Linux 4, no updates. P2V (physical to virtual) conversion into VMware (ESXi 3.5, but this bug is RedHat dependent not VMware dependent). On first boot of the virtual node, the boot stops with:
*** Warning -- SELinux relabel is required. ***
*** Disabling security enforcement. ***
*** Relabeling could take a very long time, ***
*** depending on file system size. ***
Solution
See
this Red Hat bug for discussion on what is going on.
I booted my VM from a rescue CD ISO, mounted the root directory, and:
# cd /mnt/local
# rm -f .autorelabel
Once this is done you may want to consider upgrading your VM to more -current that has this fixed.