I've just gone through the third install of Red Hat 9 on a new box. I've done the minimal install and can't even get it to boot from the floppy. Everything comes up okay on the CD and it goes through the disk partitioning and floppy creation exercises.

Immediately after installing it panics with the following set of messages:

EIP is at disable_irq [kernel] 0x4c (2.4.20-6)
[...]
Process swapper (pid: 1, stackpage=dbfa7000)
Stack: [...]
[...]
Code: ff 50 10 eb d0 eb 0d 90 ... 90
<0>Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!

I get the same panic when booting from floppy. Do I need to add drivers? Where and how?

cwk

I had the same problem. And a similar system: a brand new Celeron D server. I spent a weekend reading everything about "kernel panic: attempted to kill init!" I read well over 100 posts. I used my CDs to successfully install RH9 on a stupid Win98 Packard Bell machine. I made various GRUB changes on my server, messed with Linux Rescue, and rebooted constantly. By Monday morning, I thought my name was Kernel Panic.

You'll have no definitive answers on this, because there aren't any out there. You can recompile your kernel if it makes you feel good. But it comes down to this: Red Hat 9, as distributed, is old. Your fancy new motherboard, she can't handle it.

I went out and got Fedora Core 3. Installed it, and the thing booted right up. Do this, and you may find the happiness that I found.

HTH,
Jason "Kernel Panic" Justian

Yes, I started suspecting as much when I started looking at the copyright date on the SAMS book I'd picked up primarily for the CDs. I was in a hurry and didn't want to mess with downloading ISO images and burning CDs.

Oh, well, the BitTorrent is flowing.

Jason rocks. The box is up and merrily running Fedora.

--
cwk

I just had the same thing happen to me with Red Hat 9 and a Cereron D motherboard. But I wanted RH9 because this is what the current Cert security training module uses! RH9 installed fine on my older Duron 1Ghz machine, which is sending this reply now.