This is gonna take up some space, so i'll keep it brief. I upgradedfrom ML 8.2 to ML 9 from a Future Publishing CD during the upgrade procedure when asked to creat a boot disk it failed to do so. I continued with the installation, which finished and rebooted. The boot failed at this stage scrolling with a list of simmilar messages and ending as follows

busybox: unresolved symbol journal_dirty_data_Ra83bcbeda (the last part of this msg changes each line and there are A LOT of them)
ERROR: /bin/insmod exited abnormally!
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k ext3, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k freeext3, errno = 2
mount: error 19 mounting ext3 flags kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init = option to kernel

I'm thinking this doesn't look good....

I use my old bootdisk which seems to get so far as trying to load X but the screen just blankly flickers, and it throws me into a terminal, i've looked mount error 16, but being a dense newbie am not to sure how to procede, i know what the mtab fstab files are but am not sure how to edit it. I can get into emacs, but i've only ever used the gui version, and when i try to use the tutorial, it says that no such file or directory /usr/share/emacs/21.2/etc/TUTORIAL
when i try to go to /etc/mtab, it also says the file isn't there. These are both lies, cos i've had a look! As for passing init = option to kernel....
I've looked into the help and have found that a file needed /etc/initscript is missing. Unfortunately this is as far as i have been able to get. If someone can tell me how to pass init options i will be grateful, if i need to edit my mtab and fstab, could someone please tell me how! Thank you

By the way, i'm using a dell PC Celeron 333 Mhz with a PB mediamaster motherboard, i have a cdrw floppy and DVD rom drive, none of which are original components

Thank you again

I used to use Mandrake 8.1, very buggy and incomplete. Decided to try Mandrake 9.0 on my new system, but it wouldn't even install. Screen would go black and scroll and cap lock lights would just blink on keyboard. Mandrake "experts" told me my system was not right, that it was either a hardware error, or my hardware was too new for Linux. Well then a relative gave me a copy of Red Hat 8.0. It installed on the same system without a problem, and when it booted up, all I can say is WOW, so clean and professional looking, blows Mandrake out of the water. And don't listen to people who say Mandrake is easier to install, Red Hat installer is 100 times easier and cleaner then Mandrake. Switch to Red Hat 8.0, you won't regret it.

3777, please use quoting wisely. The post you quoted is only 1 above yours - was it really necessary to quote the whole thing?

Dogmonkey, I would suggest that when you install Linux, you have your /home area on a separate partition. When you choose to 'upgrade' to a newer distro, then you do a clean install of the newer one but leave the /home partition alone. When you're done, you should install any software that didn't come with the distro, and you're done.

HTH

Go f#ck yourself @sshole

How childish! Be sure to get your parents to change your diaper/nappy before you go to bed.

the reason it says mtab is not there could be that proc is not mounted
mtab may be a link to /proc/mounts


try this


mount -av


it will read your fstab and mount everything

post errors

I've been away for a bit so thanks people i shall try your suggestions, except for maybe 3777.......

Right,
I've managed to get x started, but can only boot into Blackbox and ice wm i prefer to use Gnome, and can use that but only from "within" another window manager, and KDE wont start at all. I can start programs such as Open Office and Galeon, text editors too, but i can't open any K program any ppp deamon or xine here are some errors that i get when startkde

xmodmap: unable to open display ''
xmodmap: unable to open display ''
/usr/bin/nspluginscan: error while loading shared libraries: libqt-mt.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
xset: unable to open display ""
xset: unable to open display ""
xset: unable to open display ""
ksplash: error while loading shared libraries: libqt-mt.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
kdeinit: error while loading shared libraries: libqt-mt.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/bin/startkde: line 204: xmessage command not found
warning: connect () failed: no such file or directory
ksm server: : error while loading shared libraries: libqt-mt.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
usr/bin/startkde: line 212: xmessage command not found
warning: connect () failed: no such file or directory
error: can't contact kde init!

This along with the missing init file and init causing a kernel panic at boot makes me think i'm onto a pattern i have a/several init files missing as i understand things init processes are what INITialises (geddit) everything on Linux therefore them being missing doesn't bode well How should i go about replacing them (or even finding where they ought to be?)

mount -av informs me that all my partitions are mounted as far as i can tell, but i'm almost positive that my mtab and fstab files are full of the wrong syntax/options - if only i knew how they ought to read (this is something i'm determined to figure out on my own though so no cheating - unless this might be why the system wont boot properly!)

I knew i had home on a seperate partition for a good reason! (Come on guys - the learning curve is the fun part!!)

Forever in hope of help

some systems create mtab on boot, but it will also work if you make it a link to /proc/mounts

rm /etc/mtab
ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab


also you might want to just download the new kde and install it