I have an issue with a RHEL6 (x86-64) install that can't boot properly. This problem followed an unclean shutdown of the OS. Basically, when I try to boot, I get the following message:

mount: you must specify the filesystem type

kernel panic - not syncing - attempted to kill init!
pid: 1, comm: init not tainted 2.6.32-279.11.1.el6.x86_64 #1
Call Trace:

? panic+0xa0/0x168
? do_exit+0x862/0x870
?fput
.....
system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b

Any assistance would be appreciated. I've got two logical volumes that I'm trying to mount in rescue mode but can't seem to figure it out. Hoping a fsck would clear this up...but when I run the rescue disk it reports that I have no Linux partitions.

Boot from rescue DVD and see if you can mount the root volume. It should end up at
If you can't do that it means the partition table may be corrupted. Check with:
If it is busted, try rewriting the table but not initializing the partitions using your carefully made records.
If you don't have carefully made records (the normal case) parted has a rescue command to try to find your partitions. Post back here if you get stuck.

Note: Most important thing in rescuing a disk is to sit on your hands until you know
what's wrong. Don't just start trying things. And make sure you keep a record of
what you do and what happens.

The rescue CD fails to load my Linux partitions (continues to say I don't have any), but when running the command "parted /dev/sda print" I do see what I would expect to see partition-wise...a /boot partition and a LVM.

I ran the following commands in an attempt to locate and fsck my LVM (since the system originally froze and there was reason to believe corruption had occurred).

# lvm pvscan
# lvm vgscan
# lvm lvchange -ay /dev/mapper/vg-root
# lvm lvscan

# fsck -yfv /dev/mapper/vg-root

The fsck ran and completed. However, now when I try to boot up, I get the following (different) error at boot-up:

mount: according to mtab, /dev/mapper/vg-root is already mounted on /sysroot
mount: /dev/mapper/vg-root already mounted or /sysroot busy
{repeats}

Thanks for your continued help - not sure how to proceed.

hmmm. I don't know every detail of the boot process, but I believe /sysroot is where the initial ramdisk mounts your root filesystem while loading the OS. When the kernel starts it "pivots" this to be the root at /.

The error says something is wrong with this mount point so maybe your initramfs in /boot is corrupted. Not sure though.

I would check the hard drive for physical errors and bad clusters using smartctl. It takes a lot of time but at least that would make it clear where to start from.

p.s. I've always been concerned of rescue-ability of an LVM partition. That was the only reason I've never used it.

It looks like when I manually mount the LVM in the rescue environment, I don't have some basic folders like etc and bin. The lost+found is full of contents though. I don't suppose there is a ready way to return those contents of lost+found to their original locations, is there? I'm thinking these missing directories like etc and bin are contributing to the rescue environment's inability to detect/auto mount the previous Linux installation, although I can see my LVM and partitions fine with the tools available in rescue.