Hi Everyone

I recently deleted the /etc/shadow file by mistake. My PC refused to boot after that. I googled and found a solution for that & everything is fine now. The document was a bit big, but it resolved fine. I am making a simplified version to post it here. I just wanted to know, what all other possibilities that could stop a Linux machine from booting, which would cause kernel panic or just hang without going anywhere… People who had similar experiences could share their ideas on how they resolved them.

I thought this data would be a good study material to analyze the boot process (a more practical approach) and easily narrow down the problem.

PS: if this is not the appropriate place to post this thread, please kindly move it to the right place

I remember, back in Mandriva, it forgot, and so did I, to update /etc/fstab after I changed the partitions through some system tool. After reboot it clearly failed to mount rootfs... I believe that's a Kernel Panic.