[resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

Convergence · 2009-02-25 16:00:22

A while ago I reinstalled, and while I was at it, I decided to use ext4 for my / partition. (however I still use ext2 for /boot) This was before the new arch ISO came out, so I had to do a little work to get ext4 to work, but it does-- as long as I run the fallback kernel.

I've run mkinitcpio several times, even upgraded my kernel via pacman a couple of times (that automatically runs mkinitcpio), and it just doesn't seem to be working.

here is the error i get:

usb 2-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
kinit: init not found!
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Last edited by Convergence (2009-03-03 11:22:13)

ataraxia · 2009-02-25 16:09:30

So what does your /etc/mkinitcpio.conf look like?

Convergence · 2009-02-25 16:15:13

# vim:set ft=sh
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run. Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array. For instance:
# MODULES="piix ide_disk reiserfs"
MODULES="pata_acpi pata_amd ata_generic scsi_mod sata_nv"

# BINARIES
# This setting includes, into the CPIO image, and additional
# binaries a given user may wish. This is run first, so may
# be used to override the actual binaries used in a given hook.
# (Existing files are NOT overwritten is already added)
# BINARIES are dependancy parsed, so you may safely ignore libraries
BINARIES=""

# FILES
# This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
# as-is and are not parsed in anyway. This is useful for config files.
# Some users may wish to include modprobe.conf for custom module options,
# like so:
# FILES="/etc/modprobe.conf"
FILES=""

# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file. The HOOKS control the
# modules and scripts added to the image, and what happens at boot time.
# Order is important, and it is recommended that you do not change the
# order in which HOOKS are added. Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# help on a given hook.
# 'base' is _required_ unless you know precisely what you are doing.
# 'udev' is _required_ in order to automatically load modules
# 'modload' may be used in place of 'udev', but is not recommended
# 'filesystems' is _required_ unless you specify your fs modules in MODULES
# Examples:
# This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
# No raid, lvm2, or encrypted root is needed.
# HOOKS="base"
#
# This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
# work as a sane default
# HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"
#
# This is identical to the above, except the old ide subsystem is
# used for IDE devices instead of the new pata subsystem.
# HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide scsi sata filesystems"
#
# This setup will generate a 'full' image which supports most systems.
# No autodetection is done.
# HOOKS="base udev pata scsi sata usb filesystems"
#
# This setup assembles an pata raid array with an encrypted root FS.
# Note: See 'mkinitcpio -H raid' for more information on raid devices.
# HOOKS="base udev pata raid encrypt filesystems"
#
# This setup loads an lvm2 volume group on a usb device.
# HOOKS="base udev usb lvm2 filesystems"
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usbinput keymap filesystems"

Convergence · 2009-02-25 16:52:46

To be honest, I've never really messed with this file. I'll have to look into it. I'd still appreciate any pointers.

Convergence · 2009-02-25 18:50:56

added "ext4" to the 'modules' section of this file, and now get a different error:

::running Hook [filesystems]
::loading root filesystem module...ext2            #I think, but am not sure that this is not really my root fs, but my /boot fs.  /boot really is ext2, so this would be accurate
Waiting for devices to settle... done
:: Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit
514: No such process
ata4: EH complete         #I'm reading this from a blurry camera image, so not completely sure that those letters are E and H
IP-Config: no devices to configure
Waiting 0 s before mounting root device...
kinit: mounted root (ext2 filsystem) readonly.
kinit:init not found
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Is my system really trying to mount my root partition as ext2? It isn't an ext2, and it never was. I created an ext3, installed a minimal system, then used tune2fs from a rescue disk to change it to ext4 with extents enabled and everything. My boot partition IS ext2, but there are no ext3 filesystems on my computer. mtab says that / is mounted as an ext4, but cfdisk says ext3. is it possible that cfdisk is mistaken?

Last edited by Convergence (2009-02-25 18:56:14)

nowahn · 2009-02-25 22:56:29

I am not sure, but I think cfdisk doesn't know ext4, and reports ext3 for those partitions (I can't check, all my ext4 partitions are on lvm).

to help in solving your bug, you can add the break=y option to the kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst (you will have a shell just before the :: Initramfs Completed - control passing to kinit line, exiting this shell resumes the boot sequence). then, you can check some things in this shell.

are your partitions simple ones, or do you use raid and/or lvm and/or encryption ?

Convergence · 2009-02-26 01:12:47

Simple, i think. I don't use encrypted drives, raid, or any of that stuff. I'm going to try adding break=y, and report back.

Convergence · 2009-02-26 01:29:26

Ok... was kinda lost there. Couldn't figure out what commands were available, so I didn't get much information. I couldn't even use ls, or dir, and tab completion doesn't work, so I didn't even know what commands were available. LOL, bash spoiled me.

I did run "mount -t ext4 /dev/sda3 /" and it mounted successfully, so I exited the shell, and I still got the same error.

So what kind of commands should I run when in this shell? I expected bash, but uh, it was something a bit more limited. Busybox?

Last edited by Convergence (2009-02-26 01:31:48)

ataraxia · 2009-02-26 04:13:06

I don't think you have a root-mounting problem. Your problem is this:

kinit:init not found

That's weird. After the initcpio boot script mounts root, it runs kinit on it to start the system. It dies if it can't run the real init. Let me ask lots of questions.

I noticed that my kinit doesn't format this error quite like yours does. Is your klibc package old? Is your system generally up to date? Maybe you should reinstall the "klibc" package and then run mkinitcpio again.

Is /sbin/init in good working order on your system? (I'd guess it is, since you can boot at all, but better to check.)

Are the "regular" and fallback entries in grub otherwise the same except for whether it uses the fallback image? (How about you just post /boot/grub/menu.lst?)

When you run mkinitcpio, does it actually finish successfully? What's actually inside the initcpio image ("zcat /boot/kerne26.img | cpio -tv")?

Convergence · 2009-03-02 23:57:01

Yes, I keep my system up to date. I run an Syu weekly. As far as the way things were formatted in my post, I'm not 100% sure that I duplicated it accurately. I just took a photo of the error with my digital camera, then typed it by hand!

as far as my /sbin/init, it exists, other than that, I don't know what to look for. It's a binary file (i thought it might be a script) so I can't paste it here

Here is my /boot/grub/menu.lst:

# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS 
#
#  Linux           Grub
# -------------------------
#  /dev/fd0        (fd0)
#  /dev/sda        (hd0)
#  /dev/sdb2       (hd1,1)
#  /dev/sda3       (hd0,2)
#

#  FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#          | 640x480    800x600    1024x768   1280x1024
#      ----+--------------------------------------------
#      256 | 0x301=769  0x303=771  0x305=773   0x307=775
#      32K | 0x310=784  0x313=787  0x316=790   0x319=793
#      64K | 0x311=785  0x314=788  0x317=791   0x31A=794
#      16M | 0x312=786  0x315=789  0x318=792   0x31B=795
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#  for more details and different resolutions see
#  http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_Resolution 

# general configuration:
timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux  [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=791 break=y
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Windows
#title Windows
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
#chainloader +1

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/38a1ea10-3bf5-438b-bd4a-e2e633b51432 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

As you can see, i modified it so that it does not use the UUID. I made this modification after the problem existed, so I don't think that it is the problem. In fact, I made this modification in order to simplify things so that I can solve the problem more easily. Also, I added the vga= argument, I really like FB as I use vt1 for a lot of things outside of X.

Ok, you've inspired me to make the kernel lines identical (with the fallback img being the guide) and see what happens.

Convergence · 2009-03-03 00:08:02

Whoah, the problem is solved! I swear, that the problem existed before I modified that file, but now that I have changed it back, it's fine! Thanks for the help. Oh, by the way, I tried using the linux - grub conversion chart, but for some reason I gave up on it. I've had this problem for too long for me to remember all the things that I tried to do to fix it.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-25 16:00:22

[resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#2 2009-02-25 16:09:30

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#3 2009-02-25 16:15:13

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#4 2009-02-25 16:52:46

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#5 2009-02-25 18:50:56

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#6 2009-02-25 22:56:29

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#7 2009-02-26 01:12:47

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#8 2009-02-26 01:29:26

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#9 2009-02-26 04:13:06

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#10 2009-03-02 23:57:01

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

#11 2009-03-03 00:08:02

Re: [resolved]kernel panic when not using fallback kernel

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