Kernel panic error
 

Hello all,

I have a server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.6.9.55.ELsmp). When it starts up I get the following error:

Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.10 starting
WARNING: can't access (null)
exec of init ((null)) failed!!!: 14
unmount /initrd/dev failed: 2
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

After that I got no response from the OS. I have the installation CD, so I tried to start the rescue mode, while going through the steps I received an error stating that mounting to /mnt/sysimage failed and that if I want to I can access a shell. I really don't know what to do from here, I know that I seem to be a complete newbie, but I really need some help solving this issue.

Thanks a lot guys in advance.

From the messages I'd say your initrd image is bad and will need to be replaced with a working one. You'll typically find it in your /boot of your harddrive and sometimes there will be a symbolic link to it in / of your harddrive. The rescue cd should have tools to generate a new one, mkinitrd, yaird, mkinitramfs, ...

another possibility is that your harddrive has issues since you had that mounting issue though it's hard to tell from what you've stated.

Thanks for the quick reply :)
I tried to do so, but I was unable to locate the \boot directory, donno why

I mounted sda1 in a temporary directory and found that it resembles /boot, I was also able to locate the file initrd-2.6.9-55.ELsmp, is this of any help???

Thanks a lot in advance !

You have bought REHELx.xx so you have prepaid support from red hat!!! Don't hesitate to ask them for a solution

Thanks a lot for the reply.

I am asking them, but they are not replying, they told me to run fsck on the partitions however that did not solve the problem, I am now waiting for their reply, and anyone here who can help me out.

if you crack open the kernel rpm you should have a copy of the initrd file there and can use that to compare it against to see if the initrd image is good. I typically use mc (midnight commander) to get files out of an rpm (or deb, iso, ...)