Arch Linux

eggplantbren

Member

Registered: 2009-11-04

Posts: 73

Kernel panic: can't read /sbin/init

Last night I was using my laptop on battery power and didn't realise how low the battery was. I also did something silly and ran pacman -Syu.
Eventually the computer tried to hibernate itself, which failed (with an error about the system bus). Anyway now the computer cannot boot. I get an error message about kernel panic and that there was an IO error with reading /sbin/init.

Any ideas on how/whether I can fix this without just reinstalling everything?

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,348

Re: Kernel panic: can't read /sbin/init

I don't have a fully formed plan, but the approach I would take is:
1. Boot from CD
2. Look at the logs on the system to see what had and what had not been pacman'ed
3. Look at  /sbin/init and see if it can be cleaned up.
4. Here is where I would have to think some more -- chroot into your system and do another pacman -Su to finish what you started.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

chpln

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2009-09-17

Posts: 361

Re: Kernel panic: can't read /sbin/init

Also check the existence of /dev/console, /dev/null and /dev/zero.  I have a feeling that this error can occur if one of those are missing.

eggplantbren

Member

Registered: 2009-11-04

Posts: 73

Re: Kernel panic: can't read /sbin/init

I couldn't chroot due to an input/output error. In the end I just did a full reinstall, which wasn't too painful. Thanks for your help anyway.