Arch Linux

TPJ

Member

From: Gliwice, Poland

Registered: 2005-12-21

Posts: 33

Arch 0.7, 2.6.17-mm6 and kernel panic

Today I have built a new kernel (2.6.17-mm6), and I got "Kernel panic" - the message I haven't seen for a long, long time.

Freeing unused kernel memory: 152k freed
Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
  argc == 3
  argv[0]: "/init"
  argv[1]: "root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2"
  argv[2]: "ro"
Running ipconfig
kinit: do_mounts
kinit: name_to_dev_t(/dev/discs/disc0/part2) = dev(0,0)
kinit: root_dev = dev(0,0)
kinit: failed to identify filesystem /dev/root, trying all
kinit: Cannot open root device dev(0,0)
Checking init: /sbin/init
Checking init: /bin/init
Checking init: /etc/init
Checking init: /bin/sh
kinit: init not found!
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

I'm not a GNU/Linux newbie, but I'm not also a kernel guru. I think, that the problem is that the kernel can't mount the / filesystem. BUT I have compiled reiserfs into the kernel. And I really don't know, why I'm getting this "Kernel panic" message.

I'm running the old Arch 0.7.

Does anyone has any idea?

-----------------------------------------
All right, I've fixed it. The problem was in Grub configuration. Before installing 2.6.17 I had used 2.6.11, and my config in /boot/grub/menu.lst was as follows:

title Arch Linux [2.6.11-pp2]
        root    (hd0,0)
        kernel  /linux-2.6.11-pp2-c13 root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2 ro

Therefore, when I installed 2.6.17, I added the following lines to this file:

title Arch Linux [2.6.17-beyond2.2]
        root    (hd0,0)
        kernel  /linux-2.6.17-beyond2.2-c15 root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2 ro

After I changed the "root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2" to "root=/dev/hda2", the kernel booted without any problems.

I'm happy, that I managed to fix my problem for myself, and that I have gained more experience with Linux kernel.

However, I would have been more happy, if I understood, why "root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2" didn't work in the case of 2.6.17 kernel, while the same thing works well in the case of 2.6.11.

scarecrow

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2004-11-18

Posts: 715

Re: Arch 0.7, 2.6.17-mm6 and kernel panic

Because the /dev/discs/discx... syntax is a remnant of the "old" devfsd days... udev prolly understands only the /dev/hdx or /dev/sdx naming scheme.

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Microshaft delenda est