I am trying to install Ubuntu on my computer, however I does not even finish installation. Usually I get an error stating:
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
and it crashes there. Sometimes it will crash a little bit further. My computer currently has Windows Me installed and it works ok (or at least it seems like it does). It is a Celeron 700 Mhz with 384 MB ram. My guess is that the problem is hardware related but I do not know where to start looking since as I said it seems to be working ok. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

The occasional time I run across this is usually due to RAM. Sometimes it's because I don't have enough (may be the case here depending on what's it doing at that moment) or because my SWAP partition isn't mounted and working. Once in a while it's just a bad disc that I burned though (worth the 10 cents to try a different one, unless you got this from the Ubuntu folks).

To see if it's hardware related, you may try grabbing an image of a Live Distro (knoppix is my little friend I keep close by during new installs) and see if it panics out. If it does, it's probably something like Bad RAM or a bad mix of chips (your BIOS may be able to be tweaked to work better with Bad RAM). If it doesn't, it may be more along the lines of a problem with just that media.

Good Luck!

Cool

Thanks. It seems like it may be ram or Bios because this is a CD direct from the guys at Ubuntu. I think I have a copy of Knoppix which a friend gave me. I will try and see what happens. I think I tried it once and it would not run but I don't remember what error I got. If it's Bios how do you go about tweaking it?

I've seen this error but not with Ubuntu. Usually it's with a newer kernel like 2.6.13 or 2.6.14. As far I remember Ubuntu Breezy ships with 2.6.12 which should work ok though I guess if you're having a problem...

I know that I'm having a similar problem when I try a newer kernel but it's working ok with Ubuntu. I would suggest trying a distro with a slightly older kernel and going from there.. Maybe try installing Ubuntu Hoary and then uprading once it's installed..

I do not think it's a matter of kernel version. I have Knoppix 3.7 which has and older kernel version and it does not work either. At some point it will freeze or the screen goes completely black.
I have also tried using the "noapci" parameter when booting (I read this somewhere else" but still it does not work.
Any other suggestions, anyone?

Hi nfungm
I had a problem similar to yours, with the Kernel Panic not syncing but in Fedora C4.
Maybe it can help you... I wrote "linux ide=nodma" and then I could finish my installation.

Ciao

Trying to install Slackware on a Seagate SATA HD (SCSI) and having the same error message. (this one:

Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

I've created my partitions with cfdisk:
sda1 Boot Primary Linux ReiserFS (243 gig)
sda5 Logical Linux Swap (5 gig) (anticipating upping RAM to 2+ gig for gaming)

They are written to disk.

My computer is an Athalon XP 3300+ with currently 1780 (approx) MB RAM

I type # setup /dev/sda and get the Slackware Linux Setup

I set up my swap partition but don't check it (as checking it causes the computer to lock up in terminal mode, where I can't type anything or Esc out of it)
It says swap space configured. OK


Then it says select Linux installation partition. I pick /dev/sda1, a Linux partition

under Format

i hit check formatting, and ext3 for my device type, it goes for a while...

Returns a whole bunch of scsi errors then a code three lines long of pairs of hexidecimal digits and then

EIP: [<c02621f2>] kmem_cache_free+0x62/0x70 SS:ESP 0068:dfcb1df0

and it freezes.

Help!! I just bought this hard disk!

THe only thing I've tried doing with it was a botched install of Ubuntu a few days ago that hung at 5 percent of something, which i noted was a bug from its support website.

I don't want to drop $60 on the official slackware cd until i know it's not my hardware that's screwy...

If I don't check the formatting it hangs up later on..

When I get to bison and clisp, to be exact.. which it says are necessary to complete the installation

any workaround ideas?
what do you think the problem might be?

Hola a todos, me presento en este foro con el objeto de dar solucion a este problema, que no es del kernel ni de particion swap ni del sistema operativo, cualquiera que fuese (linux, windows). Este incomveniente es producido por mal funcionamiento de memoria ram o en su defecto, en el banco donde esta va insertada, y paso a comentar mi experiencia, debo aclarar anteriormente, que no soy experto en linux, mas bien un novato, pero luego de investigar, di con el problema en mi pc, y fue de la siguiente manera : tengo una pentium 4 con 1g de ram, dispuestos en dos bancos de 512mg cada una,quitar la memoria del banco 2 y y reiniciar la pc, esto determinara si la memoria y el banco 1 funcionan, sino la pc quedara colgada en el booteo, si es asi, probar la misma memoria en el banco 2, si al reiniciar todo anda bien, quiere decir que banco y memoria funcionan perfectamente, ahorra cambiar la otra memoria en el mismo banco y reiniciar, con este procedimiento determina , (probar las dos memoria, primero en un banco y despues en el otro) cual es la memoria o el banco que esta fallando, en mi caso personal, fue un falso contacto del banco 2 en la placa mother, bueno muchachos, espero que les sirva mi experiencia y hasta pronto, mil disculpas a los moderadores si he cometido algun error de publicacion, merezco un perdon por novato, jajajaajaja

Hola a todos, me presento en este foro con el objeto de dar solucion a este problema, que no es del kernel ni de particion swap ni del bios ni del sistema operativo, cualquiera que fuese (linux, windows). Este incomveniente es producido por mal funcionamiento de memoria ram o en su defecto, en el banco donde esta va insertada, y paso a comentar mi experiencia, debo aclarar anteriormente, que no soy experto en linux, mas bien un novato, pero luego de investigar, di con el problema en mi pc, y fue de la siguiente manera : tengo una pentium 4 con 1g de ram, dispuestos en dos bancos de 512mg cada una,quitar la memoria del banco 2 y y reiniciar la pc, esto determinara si la memoria y el banco 1 funcionan, sino la pc quedara colgada en el booteo, si es asi, probar la misma memoria en el banco 2, si al reiniciar todo anda bien, quiere decir que banco y memoria funcionan perfectamente, ahorra cambiar la otra memoria en el mismo banco y reiniciar, con este procedimiento determina , (probar las dos memoria, primero en un banco y despues en el otro) cual es la memoria o el banco que esta fallando, en mi caso personal, fue un falso contacto del banco 2 en la placa mother, bueno muchachos, espero que les sirva mi experiencia y hasta pronto, mil disculpas a los moderadores si he cometido algun error de publicacion, merezco un perdon por novato, jajajaajaja

Hi all, I stand in this forum in order to solve this problem, which is the kernel or swap partition or bios or operating system, whatever (linux, windows). This incomveniente is produced by malfunctioning RAM or failing that, at the bank where it is inserted, and step to comment on my experience, I must clarify above, I am not expert in linux, but rather a novice, but after investigating I came across the problem in my pc, and was as follows: I have a pentium 4 with 1g of ram, arranged in two banks of 512mg each, remove the memory bank 2 and and restart the pc, this will determine if the memory and bank 1 work, but the pc freezes at boot, if so, try the same memory bank 2, if the restart all is well, it means that memory bank and work perfectly, saves changing the other memory and restart the same bank, this procedure determines (test both memory, first in a bank and then on the other) which is the memory or the bank is failing, in my case was a false contact Bank 2 the mother board, good guys, I hope my experience will serve them and soon, apologies to moderators if I made any mistake of publication, deserve a pardon by rookie jajajaajaja