i have upgraded my redhat linux 5.3 kernel 2.6.18.128.el5PAE to 2.6.34
after rebooting i am getting this message

mount: could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

what should i do

My first question is how?

The current stable release of RHEL 5 Update 5, is on the 2.6.18-194.el5 kernel. This is as of this morning where I did full updates on my RHEL 5 servers.

The 2.6.34 kernel is currently used in Fedora 12; which definitely will not be part of any RHEL 5 release.

Your system is not booting because this kernel was not built for RHEL 5; and thus is completely incompatible with all your other packages.

2 members found this post helpful.

If you run RHEL then first make certain that running unsupported kernel versions does not invalidate your support (if you bought it). If you haven't bought support then shouldn't you be running RHEL-compatible Centos instead?

As for the error: you're early on in the boot process at the point where your initrd was loaded. Commands inside the initrd environment are run to pivot_root or switchroot from the "virtual root" inside the initrd to the real root of your GNU/Linux installation. As far as I know if you're missing kernel compile-time options like CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y (if using ext3) or CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED_V2=y (dunno), if you have not included modules in the initrd for RAID, LVM or other file-systems in use, if you've changed system labeling then such errors may occur.

I'd say boot the old kernel and review your .config for your 2.6.34.

You should also be checking if your new kernel is using the new PATA drivers in place of the old IDE ones, which is more than likely.

There's a basic difference in the naming convention they use (the old ones would name your disks as hdX, the new ones name them as sdX, just like usb sticks and SATA drives). If that's the case then you will need to update your boot loader configuration and your fstab file accordingly.

could you please give me the link form where i can download upgraded kernel.
i am currenlty using redhat 5.3 kernel version is 2.6.1.128-el5PAE.
i tried 2.6.33.4 and 2.6.34 but after upgrading im getting these errors.

mount: could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Hi

Have you read the responses in post #2, #3 and #4?

As mentioned, using an unsupported kernel for RHEL is definitely not the way to go.

Repeating your original question won't help.

Have you upgraded the kernel with rpm -Uvh?

Also let us know what the necessary for you to go with 2.6.3x kernels.

Thnks alot for your support guys..
could you let me know what would be the compatible kernel that i want to upgrade..
and the any link where the required steps are mentioned....
I am very new into LINUX... please do help me.

You can install any RPM based kernels which supported by Redhat. The simplest way to upgrade kernel by yum.

yum update kernel kernel-devel kernel-header

If yum doesn't have latest kernels, you'll have to download the kernels from http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3

Have a try and let us know if you encounter any problems.

vivkepat

For any one release(5.x, 4.x, 3.x, etc) of RHEL(or Centos) there is only ONE base kernel. In the case of RHEL5.X, 5.0 came with a 2.6.18 based kernel and 5.9 (or whatever the last 5.X will be) will also have a 2.6.18 based kernel. This does NOT mean that the kernel is not updated. The features of newer kernels(such as 2.6.34) are back ported (where possible) into the 2.6.18 kernel. This does tend to lag behind the current kernels as it must be thoroughly vetted for stability and security issues. As a rough guess I would say that the current EL5.X kernel(2.6.18-194.) is roughly equivalent to a .30 kernel. In other words the 2.6.18-194 kernel is far closer to a vanilla 2.6.30 kernel than it is to a vanilla 2.6.18 kernel.

Why do you think you need a newer kernel?

On another issue: RHEL is not free. You can download and use it for free but to get access to the updates you have to pay the subscription. The few "core" OS updates you might find for free are at best a high security risk. The easier/cheaper way to get around this is to use Centos instead. Centos is built from RHEL source code. They just remove the logos and other proprietary bits. It is roughly 99.9% binary compatible with RHEL. Centos is free to download/update but it's only support is through forums.

I am currently working as system admin. I am a fresher and my boss asked me to practice and gave me a task to upgrade the current kernel. so i am doing this as an assignmetn if there is any link relaterd to kernel upgradagtipon plz let me knw...
and thnks again guys for support

vivkepat,

People here have tried to explain to you how to go about doing this and what the latest RHEL 5 kernel is.

You will not get a step by step explanation at LQ - here we help people with specific situations.

Your first post shows a particular problem, which we've already explained why/how you can resolve.

Please read the posts above in DETAIL