Kernel Panic: no init found

Could be that the root filesystem's not labelled any more.

Boot your rescue disk/cdrom and check with e2label:
# e2label /dev/hda1
/boot
# e2label /dev/hda2
/

You can relabel a partition:
# e2label /dev/hda1 /boot

What does grub or other bootloader say?

jlevie: Improper shutdown due to a power failure
paulqna: /dev/hda1 not found

Thanks.

Of course you need some sort of /etc/fstab like layout to be able to tell what path (/dev/hd(x) or /dev/scXX etc etc you need to use for the commands.

Or after booting from CD:
 - Does fdisk work ?
 - Anything in /proc/ide ?
 - Anything in /proc/partitions ?
 - Anything in /proc/ioports ? (should at least show ide or scsi disks here!!!)

SuSE also has a rescue mode that you can start by booting the first CD or the DVD.

To me It looks like LILO pointing to a wrong or currupted boot image ?Because the system is trying to boot .
 Some how i feel that the kernel was modified or changed !! but the affect came when you rebooted .
 I still feel that you should be able to boot into rescue mode rectify the situtation .
  I would need to know which linux you r using ? where you using lilo or grub
 

fixed the problem by add the linux partition back(some size as the corrupted partitions), luckly the data is still there..

You lucked out on that one. Most of the times damage to the partition table is too extensive to allow one the put back a single partition's information unless you've had the foresight to have previously recorded the partition table information.

Am glad you were able to fix it.

Are u sure the is caused by the damage partition? if damaged, how can i restore the data?

All my 3 (test, development, live) server had this problem after a power failure, may i know is this a linux problem, will this problem occur on windows platform?

And, how to prevent this to happend again future?

Thanks a lots!

What Linux are you running?

redhat 8

This might seem a little harsh..

>>And, how to prevent this to happend again future?
..buy a UPS! at £50 each I suspect they now look like good value!

I have a belkin, and they provide some networked linux monitoring software, the APC ones are supported too I think.

actually looks like a flawed bootloader entry to me
what you should do to fix this is set up your kernel parameters to have
noinitrd
since you use redsplat that would be fixed with editing your grub menu
open up a konsole
su
cd /boot/grub
vi menu.lst
the entry labeled "linux" or "redhat" whatever you boot with
hit i
then scroll down to where it says
kernel /boot/vmlinuz....
at the end of that line type noinitrd
hit escape
press :
type wq and hit enter.
The problem probably stemmed from redhat update updating the kernel without updating the loader entry correctly.

Since you see :
Warning: unable to open an initial console
Kernel panic: no init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel

to solve that, one of the way is:

On Lilo, type: root=/dev/hda1 assuming you boot from hda1.

If that doesn't work, then use rescue disk and see /etc/lilo.conf to see if the root device is point to the correct path.

/sbin/lilo -r / to re-install llilo

Hi,

I have this issue a couple weeks ago, something was screwed up in the boot sector of one of my hds...

I used a nice utility called RIP 7.9 (exists as a bootable diskette OR cd) and it solved all my problems by using a tool called "gpart" (there were a lot of tools but this one did the trick at recreating everything so linux partition can boot again). Once you've booted with RIP, look at the utilities provided on the cd, they are very easy to use I don't know them by heart. Even supports NTFS. I was amazed what that package does and did.

Here's the link,
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/

If you decide to try it, I can guide you if you're stuck somewhere, but I found it quite easy.

Hope it helps,
Martin

Hmmmm.....

I have the same problem here, I've got the program but Easy CD Creator doesn't recognize it as an .iso - properties dialog shows it as a .iso.bin

How do I get that burned to a CD?

Thanks
gd

renaming the file didn't work - it's still recognized as File Type BIN
I'm stupmed!

Look at the README on http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/ for burning instructions.

Hi paulsiew,

The solution for the prob ur facing is ....

1) Insert the First bootable CD and go inside Rescue mode.
2) After u enter rescue mode, Linux depends upon which ur using, if ur using RedHat then it will provide u with a chroot enviornment.
3)  Do a chroot after the prompt u get [Synatx:- chroot /mnt/sysimage.]

4) After chroot, enter into /etc/fstab, and check whether all enteries are proper or not, also check the names of the partition, whether they are proper.

5) If any partition is not mounted properly then do mount that ..
for e.g [ mount -t ext2 /dev/hda2 /home]
If ur /home partition has a problem.

6) If everthing is alright in /etc/fstab and u find no probs, then check /etc/lilo.conf and ensure that all entries are proper acc to the books u refer ..

7) If u have probs in lilo.conf edit the file and then run lilo -v -t  to make the changes to the kernel.

8) After u run a verbose mode through lilo -v -t, pls do lilo -t to write to the KERNEL.

9) come out of chroot, mode by pressing CTRL + D and then reboot the system.

10) Ur system must boot properly.

11) U have to do some sort of Research & Development taking help from books in Rescue Mode, then u can solve ur prob ...

If u still have probs pls mail me ur /etc/fstab + /etc/lilo.conf or grub.conf files at

contactmhatre@hotmail.com and pls mention that ur from Expert Exchange community.

All the Best

I would say that check the partition info. Make sure the first (/dev/hda1 or relevant) partition has a A (or *) flag (bootable). Use "fdisk -l" to see this. Before you do re-installations, make sure you delete the former lilo/grub image. You use RH8, the lilo/grub could be old or buggy.
Before you start a fresh installation, use a DOS system floppy and run
fdisk /MBR first. Then, go on installation.

Take it easy,.

I am facing problem:
create root device
mkrootdev: label / not found
mounting root filesystem
pivotroot: pivot_root (/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed 2
umount /initrd/proc failed :2
kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init=option to kernel

pls. help me.

Reboot the system with a linux CD and send us
fdisk -l
output.

I am having a similar proble, and the fstab, grub and lilo.conf are as follows. Are they all right?
LABEL=/      /             ext3    defaults        1 1
/dev/hda1    /C            vfat    defaults        0 0
/dev/hda5    /D            vfat    defaults        0 0
LABEL=/boot  /boot         ext3    defaults        1 2
none         /dev/pts      devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
none         /proc         proc    defaults        0 0
none         /dev/shm      tmpfs   defaults        0 0
/dev/hda9    swap          swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/fd0     /mnt/floppy   auto    noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/cdrom   /mnt/cdrom    iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1  /mnt/cdrom1   iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0




# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,6)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda8
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,6)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
      root (hd0,6)
      kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda8
      initrd /initrd-2.4.18-3.img
title DOS
      rootnoverify (hd0,0)
      chainloader +1



prompt
timeout=50
default=linux
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
linear

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3
      label=linux
      initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img
      read-only
      root=/dev/hda8

other=/dev/hda1
      optional
      label=Win32

They look to be okay. You probably need to boot up in rescue mode from a CD and do an fsck of the Linux partitions.

Thank you very much jlevie. On running fdisk -l the output obtained is enclosed. I am not sure how to follow up:
"/dev/hda1        1       577       4.63GB      b      win95FAT32
/dev/hda2      578      2434      14.91GB      f      win95ext'd
/dev/hda5     1046      1775      5.86GB      b      win95FAT32
/dev/hda6     578              584        56MB      83      Linux
/dev/hda7     585             1012      3.43GB      83      Linux
/dev/hda8    1013             1045       265MB      82      Linux
/dev/hda9    1776             2434      5.29GB      7      HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order."
Thanking in advance.
M.K.Hazarika

Have you tried an fsck on hda6, hda7, & hda8 from rescue mode?

fsck on hda6 and hda7 showed "clear" result. However on hda8 yielded the message:
"fsck 1.27 (8-Mar-2002)
e2fsck 1.27 (8-Mar-2002)
Could not find ext2 superblock, trying backup blocks......
fsck-ext2: Bad magic number in superblock while trying to open /dev/hda8.

The superblock could net be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2fsck with an alternative superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>"

How should I proceed now?
Warm regards.

That's pretty much what I though you'd find. You can try an fsck using an alternate superblock, but if that doesn't work your root file system is toast and a re-install or a restore from backup will be required,

Well, I have it re-installed. Thanks jlevie for your suggestions. Thanks to all concerned.

hi i had an identical problem....i juss created a directory called 'initrd' under '/' and that helped....

Atul

PS :I had earlier 'rm -rf "ed the directory ..hehehe ;-)

I too just had this problem.    Thankfully ... all I had to do was create a subdirectory call "initrd" under "/" and the fixed it!

Thanks atulkamat .. your suggesiton worked!!!