LinuxQuestions.org - Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

I'm a newbie to embedded Linux and I'm to the point where I'm stumped at why this system will not boot on the AT91SAM9263EK development board. I'm using a board with a Rev A part so part of the boot environment is loaded in dataflash and the root file system is loaded in the NAND Flash.

bootstrap loader image - dataflash
u-boot environment - dataflash
u-boot image - dataflash
kernel image - dataflash
root file system (ext2) - NAND Flash (0x400000)

The file system mounts but then the messages state the system is unable to open an intial console and then the next message is a panic stating that no init was found.

I've read some posts about an init script but I'm unable to find that on my root file system. I mounted the file system file as a loop device on my linux development system. I see scripts in the /etc/init.d directory but no init script in the root directory. There is a symbolic link the root directory named linuxrc that points to /bin/busybox.

The console device in the kernel argument list is a device that exists in the root file system at /dev/ttyS0. I'm not sure if this is the correct device but it was the same device used in the linux demo for this board.

Here's the output of the boot process.

RomBOOT
>

U-Boot 1.1.5 (Jun 12 2008 - 16:22:11)

DRAM: 64 MB
NAND: NAND device: Manufacturer ID: 0xec, Chip ID: 0xda (Samsung NAND 256MiB 3,3V 8-bit)
NAND: Pagesize: 2048, Blocksize: 128K, OOBsize: 64
256 MiB
DataFlash:AT45DB642
Nb pages: 8192
Page Size: 1056
Size= 8650752 bytes
Logical address: 0xC0000000
Area 0: C0000000 to C0003FFF (RO)
Area 1: C0004000 to C0007FFF
Area 2: C0008000 to C0037FFF (RO)
Area 3: C0038000 to C083FFFF
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
DM9161A PHY Detected

No link

MAC: error during RMII initialization
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 3 2 1 0
## Booting image at 22200000 ...
Image Name: Linux-2.6.24
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 1318548 Bytes = 1.3 MB
Load Address: 20008000
Entry Point: 20008000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
OK

Starting kernel ...

Uncompressing Linux...................................................................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.6.24 (john@iguana4) (gcc version 4.2.1) #4 Mon Oct 6 18:04:09 PDT 2008
CPU: ARM926EJ-S [41069265] revision 5 (ARMv5TEJ), cr=00053177
Machine: Atmel AT91SAM9263-EK
Ignoring unrecognised tag 0x54410008
Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writeback
Clocks: CPU 199 MHz, master 99 MHz, main 16.367 MHz
CPU0: D VIVT write-back cache
CPU0: I cache: 16384 bytes, associativity 4, 32 byte lines, 128 sets
CPU0: D cache: 16384 bytes, associativity 4, 32 byte lines, 128 sets
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 16256
Kernel command line: mem=64M console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/mtdblock1 rw rootfstype=ext2
AT91: 160 gpio irqs in 5 banks
PID hash table entries: 256 (order: 8, 1024 bytes)
Console: colour dummy device 80x30
console [ttyS0] enabled
Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Memory: 64MB = 64MB total
Memory: 62116KB available (2404K code, 230K data, 116K init)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
net_namespace: 64 bytes
NET: Registered protocol family 16
SCSI subsystem initialized
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
NET: Registered protocol family 2
Time: pit clocksource has been installed.
IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 2048 bind 2048)
TCP reno registered
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.97 (double precision)
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) © 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered (default)
atmel_lcdfb atmel_lcdfb.0: backlight control is not available
atmel_lcdfb atmel_lcdfb.0: 150KiB frame buffer at 23d40000 (mapped at ffc00000)
atmel_lcdfb atmel_lcdfb.0: fb0: Atmel LCDC at 0x00700000 (mapped at c485c000), irq 26
atmel_usart.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0xfeffee00 (irq = 1) is a ATMEL_SERIAL
atmel_usart.1: ttyS1 at MMIO 0xfff8c000 (irq = 7) is a ATMEL_SERIAL
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 8192K size 1024 blocksize
loop: module loaded
MACB_mii_bus: probed
eth0: Atmel MACB at 0xfffbc000 irq 21 (00:00:00:00:00:00)
eth0: attached PHY driver [Generic PHY] (mii_bus:phy_addr=ffffffff:00, irq=-1)
Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
NAND device: Manufacturer ID: 0xec, Chip ID: 0xda (Samsung NAND 256MiB 3,3V 8-bit)
AT91 NAND: 8-bit, Software ECC
Scanning device for bad blocks
Bad eraseblock 90 at 0x00b40000
Creating 3 MTD partitions on "at91_nand":
0x00000000-0x00400000 : "Bootstrap"
0x00400000-0x04000000 : "Partition 1"
0x04000000-0x10000000 : "Partition 2"
atmel_spi atmel_spi.0: Atmel SPI Controller at 0xfffa4000 (irq 14)
mtd_dataflash spi0.0: AT45DB642x (8448 KBytes)
usbmon: debugfs is not available
at91_ohci at91_ohci: AT91 OHCI
at91_ohci at91_ohci: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
at91_ohci at91_ohci: irq 29, io mem 0x00a00000
usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
udc: at91_udc version 3 May 2006
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
input: gpio-keys as /class/input/input0
ads7846 spi0.3: touchscreen, irq 31
input: ADS784x Touchscreen as /class/input/input1
rtc-at91sam9 at91_rtt.0: rtc core: registered at91_rtt as rtc0
rtc-at91sam9 at91_rtt.0: rtc0: SET TIME!
i2c /dev entries driver
i2c-gpio i2c-gpio: using pins 68 (SDA) and 69 (SCL)
at91sam9_wdt: invalid timeout (must be between 1 and 16)
TCP cubic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
RPC: Registered udp transport module.
RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
rtc-at91sam9 at91_rtt.0: hctosys: unable to read the hardware clock
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Freeing init memory: 116K
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.