Arch Linux

jaroslav

Member

Registered: 2007-11-02

Posts: 6

kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

Hi,
I've searched this forum as well as 'kernel & hardware' and haven't found something similiar to my issue.
I've successfully installed from this ISO on another computer, but on my old ThinkPad 600E it fails.
The installation goes smoothly, installer mounts /dev properly (so I think this is not the famous 2007.08.1 ISO issue).
When booting, the last lines before panic are:

EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kinit: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
sh: root=/dev/sda1: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Booting with fallback image fails with the same message.
Booting from CD with "arch root=/dev/sda1" or "lowmem root=/dev/sda1" fails with the same message.
I've tried to boot from CD, then chroot to this installed system and re-run mkinitcpio - the same result.

So, basically, I'm run out of ideas Any help appreciated, thanks!

PS. This hardware IS old, I know that (PII 366MHz, 160MB RAM), but till yesterday Archlinux (current) worked on this machine without any problems. I had to reinstall because of the hard disk failure (I've got new hdd now).

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

I get the same message like half the times I boot, I just press the power button and boot again then... I have no idea why this happens, maybe my hard disks aren't properly settled or something. But I'd be glad of someone has a solution.

jaroslav

Member

Registered: 2007-11-02

Posts: 6

Re: kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

It looks like the problem is _after_ initramfs. I've read the messages carefully, and there's a:

:: Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit
Waiting 0 s before mounting root device...

just before the messages I've quoted above.

Furthermore, I've tried to play with 'rootdelay' command, but it gives no result - as far as I undersand it only delays root mounting during initramfs stage, not after that (passing this parameter doesn't change kinit's "Waiting 0 s before mounting..." message).

PS. I've tried 2007.10 ISO - the same result. I even downloaded 2007.5.LinuxTag (wanted to install _anything_ and then upgrade), but this ISO was even worse. Please help me, which install ISO should I download to be sure that it works, I don't want to install anything else than Arch

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,323

Re: kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

have you tried ide-legacy installation?

jaroslav

Member

Registered: 2007-11-02

Posts: 6

Re: kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

I only tried to boot _after_ install with 'ide-legacy' option, without success. Do You suggest I should try running installation with this parameter as well?

PS. As I have mentioned - yesterday this system has been working successfully with up to date 'current', without legacy options (IDE disk = sda).

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,323

Re: kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

there are 2 options
your conrtoller is initialised wrong -> no /dev/sda is created

your grub entry is wrong, try to boot with break=y
and check with echo /dev/sd* the existence of sd devices

a hwdetect --show-modules would also help to determin if something else disturbs

jaroslav

Member

Registered: 2007-11-02

Posts: 6

Re: kernel panic during boot (2007.08.2 ISO)

huh,  bad luck...
First I've checked the existing installation (without 'ide-legacy') - /dev/sda1 exists - so this is not the cause of the problem.
Then reinstalled with 'ide-legacy'. Now, when in ramfs, /dev/hda1 exists - this is OK, however, I've got an error, just like previously. So, if I haven't messed something out totally - 'ide-legacy' is not a solution.

Grub entries are OK. When I hit 'c' on grub menu I can type all the commands manually, and grub's autocompletion shows that everything is OK - it finds partitions OK.

One more thing - if I enter  wrong system root (eg. 'root=/dev/foo' which obviously doesn't exist) I got ramfs shell with error message, and it doesn't allow me to go further. This is another proof, that 'root=/dev/sda1' (or 'root=/dev/hda1' when running in legacy mode) is OK.

Anyway, thanks for Your tips.

BTW. I did what You advised:

hwdetect --show-modules
PATA : ata_generic
SATA : ata_piix
USB  : usbcore uhci-hcd
OTHER: cdrom

This is perfectly OK, my previous installation used this modules.

I think I'll try with some older ISO. But 2007.05 is the oldest I can find on FTP mirror. Are there any older somewhere around?

UPDATE:
I've succesfully installed from 0.8 (Voodoo) ISO. No 'legacy' required. Then I've upgraded to 'current' and it works as expected. So the root of my problems  is definitely in 2007.xx installer.

Last edited by jaroslav (2007-11-04 10:52:59)