[SOLVED] Slackware-14 32-bit installed successfully. Kernel panic upon booting :(

Hi,
Wanting to try Slackware for a loong time now. Cut my teeth with a Slackware derivative (Salix OS 14 KDE and XFCE) over the weekend.

The install (exactly the same Slackware CUI installer) was a breeze. I use GRUB and a debian sid as my bootloader/bootload maintainer. Both distros played extremely well with my hardware specs. So, I got bold, and created a live USB out of my DVD ISO and installed Slackware 14.0 32 bit. The ISO itself was downloaded sometime in April 2013 from LQ itself. I used Rufus 1.3.4 (comes with Portable Apps platform) in Windows 7 for creating the Live USB.

The install went okay, and GRUB update recognised Slackware 14 on my partition. I boot into it, and I get a "Kernel Panic" message.

I am attaching the screenshot here, as well as a separate attachment with this post (see below). I am not new to Linux itself (use Debian distros before) but absolutely new to Slackware and the Slackware way of doing things, and so, I might be needing hand-holding in terms of debugging.

Many thanks in advance for your help and comments.

Best,
Surio.

Just wanted to add, I used Rufus 1.3.4 (comes with Portable Apps platform) in Windows 7 for creating the Live USB.

"No filesystem could mount root" usually indicates that there is either a problem with your /etc/fstab or no support for the filesystem used for / (root). The latter can happen if this file system (ext4 is the default in Slackware) is neither built in the kernel, nor provided in the initrd.

Assuming you didn't change the default filesystem and installed the "huge" kernel, which have ext4 built-in (could you confirm both assumptions?), it could be a problem with grub. Unfortunately I can't help you much there as I use lilo (the default in Slackware).

Anyhow please provide a little more information, as your hard disk layout (which partitions are used for what, with which file systems and which is bootable if any) and your /etc/fstab, and last but not least your grub config file.

Also, do you intend to install only Slackware or is it a multi-boot? In the latter case please indicate which system is expected to use each partition.

I typed a huge reply, and my browser crashed, and now it is all gone. Frustrating!

Hi Didier,

Thank you for replying. The system is a "family owned/family operated" laptop. It has Windows 7 home premium 64 bits installed. As of now, I have around 25 EXT4 partitions of approximately 10 GB for installing different distros and playing with it. I have roughly 10 or so distros on the HDD as of now. For sure, I intend for it to remain multi-boot.


Here is my fdisk -l output:

root[surio]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x219442db

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048     3074047     1536000   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2   *     3074048   589010943   292968448    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3      1928835072  1953523711    12344320   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4       589010944  1928835071   669912064    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       589012992   608544767     9765888   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda6       608546816   901513215   146483200   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       901515264   960108543    29296640   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       960110592  1116358655    78124032   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      1116360704  1135892479     9765888   83  Linux => GRUB controller here
......
/dev/sda20     1350754304  1389815807    19530752   83  Linux  > Slackware 
........
and so on

This is my /etc/fstab from the installed Slackware:

/dev/sda5        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/sda20       /                ext4        defaults         1   1
/dev/sda2        /S3A8723D005     ntfs-3g     fmask=111,dmask=000 1   0
/dev/sda35       /SHARED          ntfs-3g     fmask=111,dmask=000 1   0
#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0

I have installed two Salix OS KDE/XFCE within last 24 hours... Like I did with them, I simply pressed [RETURN] for the default options when the Slackware installer booted via USB. I recall seeing "hugesmp.a" at some point. Tell me where I can confirm this?

GRUB is the last of my worries. I am typing this from a MATE Salix 13.37 session, which I am upgrading based on the Salix wiki as we speak. The kernel is 2.6.xx and doesn't support my broadcom wifi hardware. OTOH, the Salix 14 KDE/XFCE worked "out of the box" and detected all my hardware. Anyway, here is my generate grub.cfg for you or the others to look into.

Originally Posted by surio I typed a huge reply, and my browser crashed, and now it is all gone. Frustrating!

Been there several times, ended up doing that:

1. Type the post in a text editor (I use geany)
2. When it's almost ready paste it in LQ's post editor and do a final review before posting

Originally Posted by surio I have installed two Salix OS KDE/XFCE within last 24 hours... Like I did with them, I simply pressed [RETURN] for the default options when the Slackware installer booted via USB. I recall seeing "hugesmp.a" at some point. Tell me where I can confirm this?

Do this:

1. Boot with you USB key (the one with which you installed Slackware, assuming that what you called a live USB is actually an USB installer)
2. At the first prompt, type:
   boot: hugesmp.s root=/dev/sda20 rdinit= ro
   This should boot your installed Slackware
3. provide output of following commands
   cat /etc/fstab
   ls -l /boot
   uname -a

If for some reason step 2. doesn't work, you could just hit [Enter] at the first prompt, then after booting has completed and you have logged in do not run 'setup', but type:

mkdir /myslack
mount -t auto /dev/sda20 /myslack

then grab the same information.

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier Boot with you USB key (the one with which you installed Slackware, assuming that what you called a live USB is actually an USB installer) At the first prompt, type: boot: hugesmp.s root=/dev/sda20 rdinit= ro This should boot your installed Slackware

1. Hooray! I booted to Slackware login prompt on tty1 after following your commands. There are two bizarre things I remembered now.
   
   • During install, I was only asked to create root account, and not a user account. I thought I might be asked to create a user account later on. But I was not asked
   • I was placed on a CLI login screen. There was no X server or login screen. When I logged in as root as well, it stayed on CLI, until I typed startx on the terminal!
   • I was never asked to create a user id/password either during install, or after logging in.
   
   Now here is bizarre Part 2!
   
   After I did above steps, I rebooted and used my grub menu and selected Slackware for the heck of it... I was able to boot all the way into the terminal prompt this time, rather than kernel panic! Here is the slackware entry from my grub file. You are welcome to compare it with my previously shared grub.cfg file entry to confirm/reject is something changed.
   
   
   
   

   Originally Posted by Didier Spaier provide output of following commands cat /etc/fstab ls -l /boot uname -a

/etc/fstab is as I shared above. Here it is

/dev/sda5        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/sda20       /                ext4        defaults         1   1
/dev/sda2        /S3A8723D005     ntfs-3g     fmask=111,dmask=000 1   0
/dev/sda35       /SHARED          ntfs-3g     fmask=111,dmask=000 1   0
#/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro,comment=x-gvfs-show 0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
tmpfs            /dev/shm         tmpfs       defaults         0   0

Here is ls -l /boot:

bash-4.2# ls -l /boot
total 25848
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      37 Jul 20 16:25 README.initrd -> /usr/doc/mkinitrd-1.4.7/README.initrd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      30 Jul 20 16:24 System.map -> System.map-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1515031 Sep 17  2012 System.map-generic-3.2.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1570076 Sep 17  2012 System.map-generic-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2483429 Sep 18  2012 System.map-huge-3.2.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2542480 Sep 17  2012 System.map-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     137 Jul 20 16:38 boot_message.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      26 Jul 20 16:24 config -> config-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  125794 Sep 17  2012 config-generic-3.2.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  126494 Sep 17  2012 config-generic-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  125768 Sep 18  2012 config-huge-3.2.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  126468 Sep 17  2012 config-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   22578 Aug 21  2012 inside.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    6878 Aug 21  2012 onlyblue.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   14174 Feb 15  2010 slack.bmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   33192 Aug 21  2012 tuxlogo.bmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Jul 20 16:24 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2851632 Sep 17  2012 vmlinuz-generic-3.2.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3030752 Sep 17  2012 vmlinuz-generic-smp-3.2.29-smp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5803216 Sep 18  2012 vmlinuz-huge-3.2.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6059920 Sep 17  2012 vmlinuz-huge-smp-3.2.29-smp
bash-4.2#

uname -a:

Linux surio-pc 3.2.29-smp #2 SMP Mon Sep 17 13:16:43 CDT 2012 i686
 Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU       M 350  @ 2.27GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

A few bizarre things that I noticed...

1. When I was installing, I was not prompted to create user, but was asked only to create root account.
2. After booting using the USB installer using your commands above, I was taken to login terminal session. The X-session did not start naturally. How/where to enable this automatic x-start in login?
3. I would like to create a normal user. Where and how?
4. after booting with usb, I was actually able to reboot, and subsequently, when I tried accessing Slackware from the grub boot menu, the kernel panic error did not appear. I was taken to the login terminal screen.
5. I would like X Server enabled by default, and see a GUI login screen, offering choice of KDE or Xfce. How to do it?
6. What is the network manager? Where do I access it? How to enable wifi!

Bye for now.
Thanks,
Surio.

Originally Posted by surio A few bizarre things that I noticed... When I was installing, I was not prompted to create user, but was asked only to create root account. After booting using the USB installer using your commands above, I was taken to login terminal session. The X-session did not start naturally. How/where to enable this automatic x-start in login? I would like to create a normal user. Where and how? after booting with usb, I was actually able to reboot, and subsequently, when I tried accessing Slackware from the grub boot menu, the kernel panic error did not appear. I was taken to the login terminal screen. I would like X Server enabled by default, and see a GUI login screen, offering choice of KDE or Xfce. How to do it? What is the network manager? Where do I access it? How to enable wifi!

Nothing bizarre here.

1. Slackware doesn't create a regular user for you, this has to be done after installation (see 3. below)
2. The default in Slackware is to start in a console (run level 3). If you want to start an X session at once, edit /etc/inittab and replace
   id:3:initdefault:
   with
   id:4:initdefault:
   Next time you reboot, you will be taken in an X login manager (which it is depends on which DE you installed) that will allow you to start any installed WM/DE.
3. Once logged in as root, just type "adduser" (without the quotes) and answer the questions. Do press the UP arrow key to add additional groups when suggested.
4. See 2. above.
5. See 3. above
6. Run 'netconfig' as root. Choose "NetworkManager" when asked.
   If at next startx or reboot the NetworkManager widget doesn't show, just type as a regular user in a terminal:
   nm-applet

Didier,
Thank you, all of this worked, and I can log into both XFCE and KDE sessions.



I had omitted ":" from the ending of "id:4:initdefault" initially and got prompted at boot for run level. I realised it with "aha!" later on, and edited the inittab file by accessing slackware partition from debian (as I was on that session at that time). Soon afterwards, when I tried logging into slackware some time later, I had another bout of "kernel panic"(!) but I recreated the GRUB menu and that fixed this problem once again.

Small addendum: Is there a GUI based package manager for selecting from software repos? Right now I installed and use the slackpkg CLI tool.

Originally Posted by surio Is there a GUI based package manager for selecting from software repos?

No. There have been a thread about that lately.

Didier,

Thanks again for helping me solve this problem. I hope I have seen the last of the "kernel panic" error, which somehow miraculously disappeared on its own, as quickly as it appeared.