Initial Information

• Cannot verify version of Red Hat
• Issue began after replacing defective motherboard
• Motherboard is the exact same model as the previous motherboard
• SCSI drives (3 disks. 2 set in a RAID and one outside the RAID that contains the boot partition)

Picture of the Error

I've made a backup of the drive so I have no problem doing something "creative" to get it working. Any other information you might need I will attempt to get it for you.

This message should be a FAQ.

The message means:

• "Kernel Panic" -- a condition from which the kernel is unable to continue.
• "Not Syncing" -- fortunately for you, the computer was not in the middle of a disk-write.
• "Attempted to kill init!" -- would be better put as, "init died, or failed to start."

In a classic Unix/Linux system, "init" is "process #1." Hand-built by the kernel during system initialization, it must remain running. If it does not start, or if it exits for any reason, you get a kernel panic: the system literally cannot continue without it.

In this case, of course a motherboard problem ... or, literally, maybe a chip or a card that isn't seated properly(!) ... is the most likely culprit. (In other words, and as you well know, this is probably a "bullsh*t fluke problem," not the actual end of the world. "Tomorrow Is Another Day.™")

Look for any preceding messages. For instance, failure to mount a required file system. Boot a Knoppix DVD ... (can you successfully do that?) ... and look around. Basically, the system stumbled, getting out of the gate, and awkwardly fell on its . ("Whups!") Probably nothing more.

Sundialsvcs, I appreciate your insight into this problem and your time.

Motherboard problem -- I haven't completely ruled this out as the board is "refurbished". I'm holding off on this because it was hard enough to find this board.

I have reseated everything. I have also pulled everything I could and still be able to boot/post.

I can boot to a knoppix/live CD. However, the dmesg log does not have anything in it and it is dated as the 12th of Apr for the last time it was modified. The error is not generating a log (which I suspect is because the init dies before it can write to it). There is no syslog for me to reference.

If Knoppix can boot to it, then it's likely that the motherboard is okay. Likely culprits are incorrect device drivers, or problems with file drivers.

Another possibility is the boot-time parameters which are supplied to the operating system by the boot-loader, one of which is to specify the location of the root file-system. If this parameter is incorrect or some parameter is missing, the root system won't be mounted and process #1 therefore cannot start. (Remember that GRUB numbers devices from zero; Linux, from one.)

Although the message says "attempted to kill init," it's likely that "it cannot start." (Perhaps no "processes could start under the then-present circumstances.") Process #1 is an ordinary, albeit privileged, user-land program, with the same fundamental operating requirements of all such programs. If things are such that application programs can't be started, can't find their libraries and so-forth, this panic will occur.

OLD but similar: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...issing-813578/

Maybe you can look for/at (fdisk/mount) the drive with knoppix/live CD and look around
(like /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg, /mnt/var/log/... ) for clues

p.s. Welcome to LQ!

Defective motherboard may have caused any number of issues on data.

I can't see that image but post what is after that message.

Ideas. https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1450043