Arch Linux

Herring

Member

Registered: 2017-03-14

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Yesterday I updated to linux 4.10.1-1. After the update I can't boot: Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found.

I tried mkinitcpio -p linux

I don't use grub but systemd-boot.

Any idea how I can fix this?

Last edited by Herring (2017-03-15 08:49:18)

kr3ck3n

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2013-07-14

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Hi Herring,

I have the same problem.
Any update, anyone?

Thanks!!

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,308

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

What does your systemd-boot configuration say about the root partition?
Have you been able to chroot into your installation?  What is the output of lsblk -f   ?
What file systems are you using for /
I assume this is UEFI?

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kr3ck3n

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2013-07-14

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Hi ewaller,

It is UEFI indeed and also a 64bit installation.
How do I enter rescue/single mode?

I tried to edit grub and add "single" or "target=single-user" but the boot ends up in the same error; I cannot login.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,308

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

chroot is a means of getting into your system from a bootable system (like your install disk).
Once you are in the chroot environment using your installation, we can fix it.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
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dockland

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2015-06-06

Posts: 861

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Just a tip, you can use SSH, if you set a passwd and start the sshd.service when booting from Arch Linux USB-stick.

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mxr

Member

Registered: 2009-07-08

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

I did have the same problem after updating to mkinitcpio 23. I booted using the failsafe initramfs from a different computer.

I'm not sure what went wrong during updating, but i noticed that ldd was no longer working and a symlink /usr/lib64 -> /usr/lib was missing recreating that symlink fixed mkinitcpio and ldd.

kr3ck3n

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2013-07-14

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@ewaller, the output of lsblk -f is:

loop0   squashfs
sda
  sda1 vfat
  sda2 swap
  sda3 ext4
  sda4 ext4
  sda5 ext4
sdb
  sdb1 vfat
sr0

My /etc/fstab output is:

/dev/sda3     /                ext4       rw,realtime,data=ordered    0 1
/dev/sda4     /home        ext4       rw,realtime,data=ordered    0 2
/dev/sda5     /work         ext4       rw,realtime,data=ordered    0 2
/dev/sda1     /boot/efi      vfat        noatime      0 2
/dev/sda2     none          swap      defaults      0 0

I have updated to linux 4.10.2 within chroot, but when rebooted the error still printed kernel version 4.10.1. Why didn't persist?
If I run mkinitcpio -p linux I get the following error:

.....
ERROR: '/lib/modules/4.10.1-1-ARCH' is not a valid kernel module directory
....

kr3ck3n

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2013-07-14

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Entered '/lib/modules/' and 4.10.1-1-ARCH wasn't there, but I found the updated version (4.10.2).
I have downgraded kernel from pacman cache to 4.10.1-1 and the kernel module directory now exists and mkinitcpio -p linux runs with success.
Rebooted & I get the same error:
Kernel panic - not syncing No working init found.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,206

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@kr3ck3n what boot loader are you using?

kr3ck3n

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2013-07-14

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@kr3ck3n what boot loader are you using?

I'm using grub bootloader with GPT partition table and UEFI

Last edited by kr3ck3n (2017-03-14 19:53:01)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,206

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Can you chroot in again make sure the ESP is mounted as well as the root filesystem.  The post the output of the following

$ ls /boot
$ file /boot/vmlinuz-linux
$ find /boot/efi

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,308

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

kr3ck3n,  Note that you do not have your boot partition mounted on /boot. (according to your /etc/fstab)  That means that Pacman cannot update the kernel on the boot partiion -- instead it writes it to the /boot directory.
Mount that boot partition on /boot, then update the kernel.  Then, to be thorough and clean up the mess,  unmount the boot partition from /boot and then look in /boot.  You will probably find a kernel, an initrd, and maybe a bootloader configuration file in there.  The problem is,  that directory should be empty (when it is not being used as a mount point).   To prevent this is in the future, I recommend adding the boot partition to your /etc/fstab and have it mount on /boot.

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Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,206

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@ewaller should kr3ck3n's topic be split from the original post?  My understanding is systemd-boot mentioned in the original post requires /boot to be the ESP so it seems like a separate issue from kr3ck3n's.
edit:
fixed grammar original boot should be original post

Last edited by loqs (2017-03-14 20:15:21)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,308

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@ewaller should kr3ck3n's topic be split from the original post?  My understanding is systemd-boot mentioned in the original boot requires /boot to be the ESP so it seems like a separate issue from kr3ck3n's.

Probably.  Let's wait until we hear from Herring on the chance that it really is the same problem.  If not, I'll split the threads

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Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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kr3ck3n

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2013-07-14

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Can you chroot in again make sure the ESP is mounted as well as the root filesystem.  The post the output of the following

$ ls /boot
$ file /boot/vmlinuz-linux
$ find /boot/efi

I have mounted the root partition and the boot partition (mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi) and the outputs are the following:
1. ls /boot:

efi grub initramfs-linux-fallback.img initramfs-linux.img vmlinuz-linux

2. file /boot/vmlinuz-linux:

/boot/vmlinuz-linux: Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version 4.10.1-1-ARCH (builduser@heftig-13232) #1 SMP PREEPT Sun Feb 26 21:08:53 UTC 2017, RO-rootFS, swap_dev 0x4, Normal VGA

3. find /boot/efi:

/boot /efi
/boot /efi/EFI
/boot /efi/EFI/arch_grub
/boot /efi/EFI/arch_grub/grubx64.efi
/boot /efi/vmlinuz-linux
/boot /efi/initramfs-linux.img
/boot /efi/initramfs-linux-fallback.img

@ewaller you are suggesting to mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot and not /mnt/boot/efi (as is now in fstab) and then try the mkinitcpio -p linux?

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,206

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Chroot in but with /dev/sda1 mounted to /mnt/boot reinstall linux and GRUB#Generate_the_main_configuration_file
Reboot and there should be no panic.
Then unmount /boot/efi delete the contents of /boot change the /etc/fstab entry from /boot/efi/ to /boot then mount /boot

wzrdtales

Member

Registered: 2017-03-14

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

This seems to be a bug introduced in the latest arch patch. Have the same problem and I do not run efi, still a good old legacy boot.

I have however downgraded the kernel already, nothing changes the System keeps broken. reinstalled grub, system keeps broken. Yet I am actively searching for the reason...

Last edited by wzrdtales (2017-03-14 21:15:46)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,206

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@wzrdtales welcome to the arch linux forums
You have not provided much information to going on.
What is the full set of options grub is passing to the kernel?
After chrooting in what is the contents of /boot and what is the output `blkid`

wzrdtales

Member

Registered: 2017-03-14

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

Last packages that have been updated are mkinitcpio deadbeef and usb_modeswitch. So the kernel has worked before.

wzrdtales

Member

Registered: 2017-03-14

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@loqs wait will post it here give me a sec

This is the kernel panic screen
https://ibb.co/hTECfa

Last edited by wzrdtales (2017-03-14 21:27:31)

wzrdtales

Member

Registered: 2017-03-14

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

ls /boot

grub grub.bak initramfs-linux-fallback.img initramfs-linux.img syslinux vmlinuz-linux

blkid

/dev/sda1
... # those are other os's
/dev/sda5 LABEL="home" UUID="......." TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="....."
/dev/sda6 LABEL="swap"  UUID="......." TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="....."
/dev/sda7 UUID="......." TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="....." # this is root no separate boot partition on this os

The mkinitcpio version update was from 22-1 to 23-1 that is actually the only thing that would make sense to have broken everything while the last patch.

Last edited by wzrdtales (2017-03-14 21:47:43)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,756

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 9#p1494629

You're either mounting the wrong root partition or /usr/bin/init links nowhere or the link target (usually ../lib/systemd/systemd) is somehow garbled.

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wzrdtales

Member

Registered: 2017-03-14

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

@seth None of both , its the right disk /usr/bin/init links to ../lib/systemd/systemd and the /usr/lib/systemd/systemd also seems to be perfectl fine

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,756

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel Panic - not syncing. No working init found

"stat /usr/lib64"?

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