I'm a relative newbie with a seemingly old problem. I updated to Redhat 9 from 7.3 a couple of months ago. I'm running a twin xeon 2.2GHz machine. The SMP kernel booted fine with 7.3 but only the UP kernel supplied with RH9 (2.4.20-8) boots, the SMP kernel panics with the following message (snippet):

...
Loading ext3.o module
Mounting /proc filesystem
Creating block device
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot_root(sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing unused kernel memory: 156k freed
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel

I've updated the kernel to 2.4.20-19.9, now neither the UP or SMP kernels boot (thankfully I can still use the 2.4.20-8 UP kernel to get into the system).

The lilo configuration file reads:

boot=/dev/sda
linear
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
root=/dev/sdb2

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.9smp
label=2.4.20-19.9smp
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-19.9smp.img
append="root=LABEL=/"

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.9
label=2.4.20-19.9
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-19.9.img
append="root=LABEL=/"

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
label="2.4.20-8"
root=/dev/sdb2
read-only
initrd="/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img"

image="/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp"
label="2.4.20-8smp"
root=/dev/sdb2
read-only
initrd="/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img"

image=/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
label="Linux_Compiled"
root=/dev/sdb2
read-only
optional

other=/dev/sda1
label="2k"

and the content of the boot directory is:

total 21633
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Oct 9 2002 boot.0800
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5824 Jan 25 05:05 boot.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 Jan 25 05:05 chain.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44753 Jul 15 22:29 config-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44805 Jul 15 22:16 config-2.4.20-19.9smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44309 Mar 13 23:01 config-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44361 Mar 13 22:52 config-2.4.20-8smp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Jul 25 11:37 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 275352 Jul 25 11:37 initrd-2.4.20-19.9.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 280696 Jul 25 11:37 initrd-2.4.20-19.9smp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 275235 May 23 15:20 initrd-2.4.20-8.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 280626 May 23 15:21 initrd-2.4.20-8smp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 473 May 23 15:20 kernel.h
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Oct 9 2002 lost+found
-rw------- 1 root root 69632 Jul 25 13:49 map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23108 Feb 25 00:51 message
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21282 Feb 25 00:51 message.ja
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Jul 25 11:37 module-info -> module-info-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15438 Jul 15 22:29 module-info-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15438 Jul 15 22:16 module-info-2.4.20-19.9smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15436 Mar 13 23:01 module-info-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15436 Mar 13 22:52 module-info-2.4.20-8smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 640 Jan 25 05:05 os2_d.b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jul 25 12:14 System.map -> System.map-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 522578 Jul 15 22:29 System.map-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 548510 Jul 15 22:16 System.map-2.4.20-19.9smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 520129 Mar 13 23:01 System.map-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 546061 Mar 13 22:52 System.map-2.4.20-8smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3212677 Jul 15 22:29 vmlinux-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3660682 Jul 15 22:16 vmlinux-2.4.20-19.9smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3193503 Mar 13 23:01 vmlinux-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3637412 Mar 13 22:52 vmlinux-2.4.20-8smp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jul 25 11:37 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1133130 Jul 15 22:29 vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1219040 Jul 15 22:16 vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.9smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1122186 Mar 13 23:01 vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1211291 Mar 13 22:52 vmlinuz-2.4.20-8smp

I've trawled through various forums and noticed that there were problems with the SMP kernel and ext3 in versions of the kernel released with RH7.3. Has anyone come across this problem with RH9 or can anyone help me out with it?

Many thanks
Gordon

boot=/dev/sda
linear
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
root=/dev/sdb2

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.9smp
label=2.4.20-19.9smp
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-19.9smp.img

append="root=LABEL=/"

Delete this line from your lilo.conf file

I deleted this line, no joy I'm afraid! Exactly the same kernel panic with both the UP and SMP kernels

Any other ideas... ?

Cheers
G

Do you know how to build a custom kernel?

not done it, but there's a first time for everything (... I can follow the man & faq pages when I get into trouble).

Do you have any specific suggestions so the recompiled kernel doesn't have the same problem?

Hopefully by compiling the kernel you will resolve this issue. I have found that upgrades can corrupt the systems configuration resulting in that nasty message " kernel panic ". Use this HOWTO to compile your kernel. be sure to include the " ext3 " module.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...O/Kernel-HOWTO

Cheers,
compiling as I type, I'll post results when I'm done
G

Worryingly everything is now working fine. Not that I've knowingly done anything correctly. I successfully compiled the kernel and associated modules three times, and on each occasion the machine failed to boot. However, I retried the 2.4.20-19.9 smp kernel and it successfully booted for the first time, correctly recognising both processors and loading all modules correctly - no hint of a panic! I'm not sure I like this voodoo
Thanx for all your help in any case,
Cheers
G