New kernel... Can't boot... Big Problem
 

Ok, so I installed a new kernel on my system. I followed the newbie guide on this site. My boot loader is grub. It starts loading and then gives this error:

mount: error 19 mounting ext 3
pivot root: pivot_root (/sysroot,/sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing unused kernel memory: 264 k freed
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init=option to kernel

What can I do now?? I can't boot at all now!! I still have my Redhat install cd which has a rescue mode, so I can mount my file system. Any ideas, at all?? Please help me.

Chris DeGroot

You didn't delete your old kernel, did you? If you did, then you'll have to re-install everything. I'm not sure whether you can copy the kernel in the CD to your /boot directory, it might cause problems with initrd and modules. If you can though, then add the appropriate lines to your grub.conf file to load the old kernel.

Do you recall compiling ext3 as a module? If your root partition is ext3 then you won't be able to boot.

Boot into rescue mode and chroot to the linux partition (probably something like chroot /mnt/system) then install the original kernel rpm.
rpm -ivh --force /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/kernel-x.y.z.rpm

You may need to copy the kernel rpm off the cdrom first?

If your filesystem is mounted read-only use mount /dev/hdaX /mnt/system -o remount,rw before you chroot to make the system rw.

I did not delete the old kernel. I did, however, delete the initrd for the old kernel because that was what the guide I was following told me to do. I'm not sure if I compliled ext3 as a module. If I did, is there anything I can do?

I will try this.

I tried installing the kernel from rpm, but I just got a bunch of failed dependancies. I used --force like you said. Any ideas?

Oh, wait... I'll try copying the rpm from the CD first. Forgot about that.

Thanks, that seemed to work. I can boot again.

Always keep your current kernel/initrd as a backup when making a new kernel.