kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

[jim.hitch]

Hi Guys

Used Adept to upgrade to 3.5.9. Adept crashed at the end, but reran it to make sure it was okay.

Now on reboot I'm getting

Kernel panic: no init found. Try passing init= option to kernel

Found this as a solution

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...ption-ker.html

i.e adding init=3 to the right line in grub's menu.lst (I've been adding it to the lines I use to boot in the grub menu that comes up on boot.)

But I'm still getting the same error.

Any ideas?

Jim

[Qqmike]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

If you look in /boot, do you have a file called

initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

or just one called .bak?

You may need to use your Live Kubuntu CD to access your Kubuntu partition, or if you got a terminal, list the files under boot,
cd /boot
ls -l -a


IF you ONLY have the .bak file (and no regular initrd generic file), then you can rename it by removing the .bak extension, and it might fix this problem.

[toad]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

And if you don't have one at all you need to boot your live CD, open a root shell (sudo su) and type

chroot /dev/sdXN

where X is the drive and N the partition where you originally installed Kubuntu. Once you have done that type

update-initramfs -c

But I bet you got one

[Qqmike]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

come to think about it, jim.hitch, what I said is a long shot; if it were the case, I think you'd get another kind of error (eg, GRUB 15 or something);

but kernel panics--it seems to me--are often caused by a messed up initrd/ramdisk (whatever the experts call it), and often require fixing initramfs; and that can be a crap-shoot, which I've had some mixed success with, but mostly success;

I'll record it here in case you need such a reference, and we have some members who have also messed with this; I am under the impression that doing this should not hurt anything (unless your system is already messed up in some way), but YMMV!

Initrd Fixing

Here's an example where the broken initrd file is located in a sda2 Kubuntu partition

From the Live CD, chroot into the sda2 partition.
Issue the following command:
sudo update-initramfs -u -v
and let it run and put things together & right for your initrd.


Chroot – How To
To chroot into sda2 from the Live Kubuntu CD at Konsole:
sudo mkdir /media/fixthings
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/fixthings
sudo chroot /media/fixthings
(Now you are “in” sda2 as root and can work from there as if you were actually booted into it.)

[Qqmike]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

oops AGAIN I've missed the other posting!
Thanks toad for checking this -- I was hoping for such but didn't presume to call you

[toad]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

no need, Qqmike, your explanation is much more comprehensive I'm too tired after a late night out to give anything more than the quick fix

[jim.hitch]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

Thanks guys.

So far I tried the first, renaming, suggestion, which fixed, or seem to, the issue. But since running Adept again I'm getting a different kind of kernel panic, so I'll have a go with you other solutions later today.

Through bitter past experience I have sereval bootable partitions on my box, so it's still okay to access my stuff.

I'll keep you posted.

Jim

[Qqmike]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

"I have several bootable partitions on my box, so it's still okay to access my stuff."

Yep--good strategy; me, too The extras are free & easy.
BTW, same thing happened to me--upon re-boot, no-go; so then the chroot and sudo update-initramfs -u -v did the trick.

[jim.hitch]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

BTW, same thing happened to me--upon re-boot, no-go; so then the chroot and sudo update-initramfs -u -v did the trick.

Yep, same thing, but the command you gave works a treat. The only trouble is that updates in Adept are now giving a 'commit' error, which seems to be fine until I do the old reboot, and get a panic again.

I'm dealing with this by booting into another partition and renaming the initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic.bak file you mentioned in your first post, then booting back into that and running your command again. Am I simply going around in circles? Should I chroot the initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic file from the OTHER partition and run the magic command from there?

I'm tempted to just not use Adept until Hardy is released and fix it properly on a rebuild (am also thinking that I'm spending too much time on these Kubuntu versions and might just stick with Hardy as the LTS version until the next LTS is released... )

[Qqmike]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

Yeah, that “commit” error. Sometimes this clears it up, but not always:
sudo dpkg --configure -a
(and sometimes, then,also,
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -f install)

The magic commands you mentioned should be run in the broken partition (as chroot), not some other partition.

I've had the same problems and not sure I see a definitive pattern for fixing them.

[Qqmike]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

If all else fails, and you feel you have nothing to lose, you might try to fix the toolbox:

If the update-initramfs does not work, or hangs, you would try to repair initramfs-tools:
First, doing a chroot into the broken partition, from Konsole, uninstall it, then re-install it:
sudo dpkg –configure -a
sudo apt-get –purge remove initramfs-tools
sudo apt-get install initramfs-tools
Then, try the update-initramfs again (as above).

Thought I'd drop that here. Do not try it from within the broken partition, though! Once upon a time, I wasn't thinking in my haste to repair, did that, and it'll trash the OS so bad, it would take a * real * expert to get back in

[ultrageeky]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

Have a look at my post here http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...9702#msg119702

It should help, there shouldn't be a need to do the swapoff...swapon bit

Regards,
UltraGeeky

[jim.hitch]

Re: kernal panic on upgrading to 3.5.9

Months later, I know. But thanks for the replies. It's all fixed now. Can't quite remember what I did though to fix it...