Compiled own kernel and got: Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to
 

Dear,

I have installed Red Hat 8.0 , but I needed to build a vanilla kernel because of my network card. It does not seems to work under the RH kernel.

So I downloaded the 2.4.20 sources, roled up my sleeves, and got started. I have to say that I am very new to Linux, so I think everything went OK during the building process, but I can't be very sure of that.

For installing the kernel on the boot partition, I used make install. That did not seem to work with "root=LABEL=/", so I changed that to the boot partition.

That got me to where I am now: stuck on "Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init=option to kernel".

I found a lot of other postings concerning the "No init found message", but I was not able to get a clear idea of what I should do out of those.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Frankie

-> my grub.conf looks like this:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,5)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda8
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda6
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,5)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20 ro root=/dev/hda6
initrd /initrd-2.4.20.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

-> the df command shows me this:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda8 6905416 5576584 978052 86% /
/dev/hda6 80486 11891 64439 16% /boot
none 256900 0 256900 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda2 3666980 3641476 25504 100% /mnt/d
/dev/hda5 2784152 2691292 92860 97% /mnt/e

-> my boot partition looks like this:

total 7553
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Jan 7 16:20 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 Jan 8 11:07 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5824 Sep 5 22:53 boot.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 Sep 5 22:53 chain.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42150 Sep 4 19:47 config-2.4.18-14
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 7 16:17 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 130000 Nov 17 17:05 initrd-2.4.18-14.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 66266 Jan 7 16:17 initrd-2.4.20.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 473 Nov 17 17:05 kernel.h
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 992256 Jan 7 15:56 linux-2.4.20
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Nov 17 16:59 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23108 Sep 6 16:05 message
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21282 Sep 6 16:05 message.ja
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Nov 17 17:05 module-info -> module-info-2.4.18-14
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15436 Sep 4 19:47 module-info-2.4.18-14
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 640 Sep 5 22:53 os2_d.b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Jan 7 16:20 System.map -> System.map-2.4.18-14
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 507814 Sep 4 19:47 System.map-2.4.18-14
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 507356 Jan 7 16:17 System.map-2.4.20
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3236438 Sep 4 19:47 vmlinux-2.4.18-14
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Jan 7 16:17 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.20
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1125194 Sep 4 19:47 vmlinuz-2.4.18-14
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 992256 Jan 7 16:17 vmlinuz-2.4.20

Re: Compiled own kernel and got: Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to
 

Shouldn't the new kernel have the same "ro root=LABEL=/"?

And just for grins, what does your /boot/grub/menu.lst show?


John

Chaging to root=LABEL=/" results in another Kernel panic;

VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or 00:00
Please append a correct "root:" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

But it was indeed the grub.conf that was the problem, it had to be root=/dev/hda8

I got that from somebody in Linuxnewbie, but thanks for your post.

Of course my network card still doesn't work, ..., and although it's hard to believe; I still love learning Linux, "when men where men, and 'compiled' their own device drivers" !

Excellent! I'm impressed :)

But when did hda8 come into the picture?


Not this one, I'll wait for the next release :)


John

Hi, i have recieved a similar message. I have XP home and RH8.0 on a partition and i am using lilo to boot. After a while booting into linux i get:

***********
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot,/sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing ununsed kernel memory: 212k freed
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
***********

i can boot ok with a boot disk, but i dont know what to do to fix this. My lilo.conf file is:

************************
prompt
timeout=50
default=Windows
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14
label=Linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img
read-only
append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=Windows
table=/dev/hda

*****************************

any help fixing this will be greatly appreciated,

many thanks,

Charlie
:newbie:

After looking about, it would appear that your disk is no longer labeled (whatever that means, SuSE doesn't do this).

http://www.redhat.com/mailing-lists/.../msg09960.html

Boot up and run "e2label /dev/hda?" with "?" replaced by the actual partition number.

Use the link as a guide and label your partitions accordingly. Then re-run "/sbin/lilo" as root.

Let me know if this works (and post your /etc/fstab while you are at it).


John

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0


*********

thats my /etc/fstab. if you gimme a min i will try the other thing. thanks for helping btw :).....

ok my hard disk has windows xp on hda1, and e2label said the following:

# e2label /dev/hda2
/boot
# e2label /dev/hda3
/

so it appears to be ok? :(

hey i fixed it, i read somewhere to add 'noathlon' to my lilo.conf and it worked. cheers for help though :)

"noathlon"?

Good grief!

Good to hear that it's working, BTW, did you have to re-run lilo?


John

i dont know if i had to, but i did just in case, then rebooted and all was fine. still not sure why i had to add noathlon tho, lol.

I found a bit of info on "noathlon" problem:
http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/gotchas/7.2/


John

I believe that the error:

Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot,/sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing ununsed kernel memory: 212k freed
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

has something to do with your root partition not being mapped properly in your lilo bootloader's config file.

Boot your system to linux using the bootdisk, login as root and verify check the mounted filesystems in your machine by executing this command:

df

Check the device that is pointing to the / partition.

After that, edit your lilo bootloaders config file (lilo.conf) using your favorite text editor and change the entry fo this line:

append="hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/"

to this

append="hdd=ide-scsi root=<device>

e.g.

append="hdd=ide-scsi root=/dev/hda3

Save the file and reinstall the LILO Bootloader by executing this command:

lilo -v -v

I hope these help....