Centos / Fedora won't boot: kernel panic due to LVM messed up!!! please help!!!!!
 

Hi there, I am a newbie so please be gentle......

The problem- My Cctv runs on centOs 4.4 and was working fine till I took 2 of the four hard disks elsewhere and connected them to another CentOS that I was loading to another harddrive ( experimenting with Linux systems to understand them better). Now on boot it cannot find the VGs and LVs and therefore goes into kernel panic!!! The following text is quoted from boot process:

Booting command-list
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type is 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x16dd65]
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img
[Linux-initrd @ 0x1fec8000, 0x117d69 bytes]

Before it got messed up it would go onto:

Uncompressing Linux...Ok, booting the kernel.
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
INIT: version 2.85 booting
Setting default font (latarcyrheb-sun16): [ OK ]

Welcome to CentOS release 4.4 (Final)
Press "I" to enter interactive startup.
Starting udev: [ OK ]
Initializing hardware... storage network audio done [ OK ]


Now after I have messed it up it goes to :

Uncompressing Linux...Ok, booting the kernel.
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Couldn't find device with uuid 'kdsz6S-RoBh-arFp-HZMv-44kh-huf7-21LpXh'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'kdsz6S-RoBh-arFp-HZMv-44kh-huf7-21LpXh'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'kdsz6S-RoBh-arFp-HZMv-44kh-huf7-21LpXh'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Volume group "VolGroup00" not found
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Volume group "VolGroup01" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 349)
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Volume group "VolGroup01" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 350)
mount: error6 mounting ext3
mount: error2 mounting none
switchroot: mount failed: 22
umount / initrd/dev failed: 2
kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Being a newbie I don't know much but have got the "knoppix" cd and "Gparted" cds. Not sure what to do with them though. Don't want to mess up the system further. But can follow any step by step instructions quite well . Any help is highly appriciated. I am sure there is a way out there to sort it out- Linux has everything!!! Thanks

LVM issue. CentOS system. Kernel panic!!
 

Centos / Fedora won't boot: kernel panic due to LVM messed up!!! please help!!!!!

Hi there, I am a newbie so please be gentle......

The problem- My Cctv runs on centOs 4.4 and was working fine till I took 2 of the four hard disks elsewhere and connected them to another CentOS that I was loading to another harddrive ( experimenting with Linux systems to understand them better). Now on boot it cannot find the VGs and LVs and therefore goes into kernel panic!!! The following text is quoted from boot process:

Booting command-list
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type is 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x16dd65]
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img
[Linux-initrd @ 0x1fec8000, 0x117d69 bytes]

Before it got messed up it would go onto:

Uncompressing Linux...Ok, booting the kernel.
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
INIT: version 2.85 booting
Setting default font (latarcyrheb-sun16): [ OK ]

Welcome to CentOS release 4.4 (Final)
Press "I" to enter interactive startup.
Starting udev: [ OK ]
Initializing hardware... storage network audio done [ OK ]


Now after I have messed it up it goes to :

Uncompressing Linux...Ok, booting the kernel.
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Couldn't find device with uuid 'kdsz6S-RoBh-arFp-HZMv-44kh-huf7-21LpXh'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'kdsz6S-RoBh-arFp-HZMv-44kh-huf7-21LpXh'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'kdsz6S-RoBh-arFp-HZMv-44kh-huf7-21LpXh'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Volume group "VolGroup00" not found
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Volume group "VolGroup01" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 349)
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Volume group "VolGroup01" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 350)
mount: error6 mounting ext3
mount: error2 mounting none
switchroot: mount failed: 22
umount / initrd/dev failed: 2
kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Being a newbie I don't know much but have got the "knoppix" cd and "Gparted" cds. Not sure what to do with them though. Don't want to mess up the system further. But can follow any step by step instructions quite well . Any help is highly appriciated. I am sure there is a way out there to sort it out- Linux has everything!!! Thanks

Looks like the identification of the hard drives got changed around, but at least it looks like it can still find GRUB, your bootloader. When you first boot up the computer, but before it actually starts loading the operating system, press E at the grub boot menu, to edit the command line options. From there, you'll have to figure out the ID of the hard drive as the system sees it. You might want to try plugging in the hard drives as they were originally, too.

On a default installation; an LVM creates a virtual hard drive space out of all your physical hard drives. So if you had a 40GB, 80Gb, 120Gb and a 160GB HDDs; that would be a total of 400GB of combined space created by LVM. Out of this 400GB space you would have your / and all other mandatory partitions that linux needs in order to boot up and operate properly.

AKA your data is spread over all those four hard drives; you removed 2 of those disks; its a given fact that you just destroyed the 'virtual space' which is a collaboration of all drives.

"Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00." <--- this means that it cannot find the 2 HDs that makes up the 'virtual space'

Solution:
Put those untampered disks back in exactly the same places.

if not:
None. You would have to reinstall the whole linux system again.

put those disks back


see similar threads below

Yes, it has everything, except a way to recover from something like this. It's not magic.

If you did anything to the disks you removed, sorry...you're going to have to reinstall. You can't just yank drives out of an array, under ANY operating system, and expect things to keep chugging along. As others have suggested...put the disks back where you got them. If it doesn't work, you'll have to reinstall.

thanks tgp1994
I am not so good at editing the command line options - can follow step by step instructions though.Can you suggest some. I have already tried putting in the hard disks back but because they were configured into new centos memory they are not being recognised by the original system.

smile

Thanks Amani and TBOne,
If senior members like you say so then that might be true. the second CentOS system I have set up has used those disks to make up its own virtual memory, I have tried putting the disks back exactly as they were but the cctv system refuses to accept them...

Is there no way to edit the stage where it pauses for 3 secs before starting to load the OS and says:
"CentOS-4 i386(2.6.9-42.EL)" AND PRESSING ANY KEY GIVES

"Kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img"

Am not saying that windows is better but if the files are corrupted in some way it does have a built in repair feature which corrects the errors. and there is the "Restore " to previous date/time option as well.

Alright, I'll give it a shot. (It might be easier if we do this over some kind of instant messaging program, maybe IRC.)

In the mean time, give this a try:

1. Insert the hard drives as close to how they used to be as you can remember. Also: Make sure the boot hard drive is first in order and your BIOS is configured to boot from it first.
2. Boot up the computer, and see if it works.
3. If it does not work and gives you the same error message, continue:
4. Reboot the computer, then when you see the GRUB bootloader screen (this will appear after the BIOS's POST screen, and before you see "Booting command-list, root (hd0,0), etc.") press the E button. This should pause everything, and you should be in a terminal-like screen editing the boot process.
5. Edit the line beginning with "kernel...", by pressing the E button again. Change it to look like this:
Notice that here I changed /dev/VolGroup01 to VolGroup00, and I removed the "Quiet" option, so hopefully it will give us more information as to what is going wrong and how we can fix it.

6. Now press the B button to boot with the new changes. Notice that this will not permanently save them, so if you need to edit the boot process using this method again, you will be dealing with the old configuration.
7. Tell me how it goes, and also post any new errors.

I hope this can help you out. If you need any kind of clarification or something isn't working, please ask.

"Corrupt" is one thing...."overwritten" is another. You took disks out, and overwrote the LVM configuration, when you put them in another box. That's it...it's gone.

There are many pieces of Linux backup/recovery software that work wonderfully. And one thing you omit with the reference to Windows software...you've got to have a WORKING Windows system, to use it. If you overwrite the Windows OS, or blow away the partition, you're just as dead.

Thanks tgp1994,

I had not disturbed the disk with root and boot files. I checked this with gparted cd. What is IRC?
there is some change in output:it scrolled through many pages of text. the last screen is:

Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup00.
Volume group "VolGroup00" not found
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Volume group "VolGroup01" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 349)
Activating logical volumes
cdrom: open failed
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Couldn't find device with uuid 'djkmPn-TWMN-ZrzQ-SeK1-v9yk-nvGA-djn7KM'.
Couldn't find all physical volumes for volume group VolGroup01.
Volume group "VolGroup01" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 350)
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error6 mounting ext3
mount: error2 mounting none
Switching to new root
switchroot: mount failed: 22
umount / initrd/dev failed: 2
kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!


thank you.
smile

Thanks TBOne for the reply,

Reading through all the help forums on linux, redhat and lvm documentation I was hoping that since the boot disk with all the root files was untouched and kernel and initrd were accessible for manipulation, there would be some command or programming that could ask it to repair itself or ask it to change its volumes to just that disk which is intact.

I have noticed that in vista if windows does not boot, it asks for permission to repair its corrupted files before it boots.

Cheers

Yikes. So let me get this straight; the operating its self is on the first hard drive, with the boot files, and nothing has changed on that hard drive? And you are sure it is plugged into the first available connection on your motherboard?

Now I'm a little confused at something else here after looking over your first post again. What operating system is currently installed on this troublesome computer, Red Hat or CentOS? Your boot seems to be saying Red Hat, but you're saying CentOs. If the booting portion of your system is meant for Red Hat, but the rest of the system is CentOs, we may have to change a few things.

So, if you are very sure that CentOS is the dedicated, sole operating system on this computer, then I would like to suggest that you download and burn a live cd version of CentOS from the below link. (And why do you have a Knoppix cd, have you used it for anything?)

Download CentOS 4

Choose one of the mirrors there, then click on CentOS****-i386-bin1of4.iso. At least I think that's the only one you need. (Note: By putting **** there, I mean to suggest that anything could be in that spot.) Perhaps you may want to consider upgrading to CentOS 5, it doesn't seem like you would have much to loose anyhow. (This semi-broken computer is backed up, correct?)

Now, after looking at the very top of your first post, (I'm sorry for not seeing this at the beginning,) why do you mention Fedora as well? Where does it come into the picture? Which operating system are we actually dealing with here?

Thank you for your persistence and understanding so far.

@ smileamiledr,

In the future, please do not post the same question in more than one location, as it makes it difficult for members to follow the discussions, and to help you.

I am merging your two threads together (I'll bring the Newbie thread over to this forum), since they both have had several replies.

EDIT: Threads merged. There's a bit of overlap, but should be tolerable.

Kind regards,
Sasha

Hi tgp1994

Thanks for the reply ... and now I am having some hope.

Yes the first hard drive (250gb) with the boot and root stuff is untouched. And it is plugged into the first Sata connection on the motherboard. It has the label dev/sda1 which has all the root and boot stuff and the rest is dev/sda2 which was part of the whole of the LVM.

First the confusion about CentOS, Redhat and Fedora

CentOS- that is the operating system that would run when the computer was working."CentOS-4 i386(2.6.9-42.EL)" Thats where I pressed "e" to edit as you suggested before. That is the blue screen similar to the one in the Fedora root password reset link I have given below.

Fedora- I don't know how much similar they are but when I lost the root password I reset it using this guide

http://www.go2linux.org/fedora-cento...sword-recovery

.....which is for Fedora but worked perfectly well for CentOS

Redhat- again dont know how it is related to CentOS but the text comes up when the machine is powered up as I have mentioned above and repeat here:

"Uncompressing Linux...Ok, booting the kernel.
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.8 starting"


Now for the CentOS CDs:

You are right- it needs only CentOS CDs and I have them already- that's how I set up the other machine where I used the 2 hard drives and messed up the LVM