Re: boot problems - initrd

> There's alot of information here... thanks :) Can you give us a little
> more? Dual or single cpu, kernel version? Filesystem layout, contents of
> fstab?

Single CPU (Intel PIII 800mhz). I'm guessing from the 'kernel' line that my
kernel version is "vmlinuz-2.4.7-10". It is the one that came with RH 7.2
Pro retail box. I haven't upgraded or modified anything.

I'm not entirly sure of my file system layout. (I'm a relative newbie,
unsure about devices and file systems still) I'm using RAID 1 on two SCSI
drives. It was setup by the installer during the install process and I
assume it usues all the defaults. I don't know the layout of fstab. The
machine is remote (co-located in a data center), and I have no way of
copying/pasting or saving that information from the server.

I also took a look in /var/log/boot and all the recent files were blank.
Nothing ever got written to them.

> Have you tried uninstalling grub and running lilo? (make a backup of
> grub.conf first)

No, I haven't tried this. I'm not sure how to go about this. I don't have
the lilo files on CD or floppy disc. Since I'm stuck in rescue mode, the
network isn't up (can't download them).

What I don't understand is why all of a sudden it would stop working. Prior
to this, the machine was working fine. How could adding "single" to the end
of the line cause all of this?

Would the installer fix my fstab, or maybe my grub.conf file?

Regards,
        Jeremy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeremy Booker - Owner / Webmaster
JTech Web Systems
www.JTechWebSystems.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Mathew 5:34
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Mastin" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 12:55 AM
Subject: Re: boot problems - initrd


> Hi Jeremy,
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > After forgetting my root password and trying to boot into single user
> > mode under Red Hat 7.2 Pro (boxed retail set) I have run into a kernel
> > panic. In grub I edited the boot commands to include "kernel /boot/....
> > single". Immediately after doing this the system failed to boot with the
> > error message "kernel panic: no init found. Try passing init= to
> > kernel". (Previously the machine had run just fine and had been up for
> > over 150 days). After the first failure I tried adding any combination
> > of "single", "-single", "s", and "-s" I could think of, and changed
> > their position in the command (first/last parameter, appended "single"
> > to other commands including initrd line). Nothing could get me into
> > single user mode, I never got past the kernel panic. I also tried
> > passing init= as a kernel argument with the path listed on the "initrd"
> > command. I eventfully booted to rescue mode from a RH 7.2 install disk
> > and got my password changed. However, I am still unable to boot from the
> > hard drives. (In a software RAID 1 config)
>
> There's alot of information here... thanks :) Can you give us a little
> more? Dual or single cpu, kernel version? Filesystem layout, contents of
> fstab?
>
> For future reference, there is a way around losing or forgetting your root
> password. Add your username to the wheel gorup, and edit the pam.d/su file
> so only your user can su root and is implicitly trusted (uncomment the two
> lines referencing the wheel group in the su file). Then you can just "su
> -" into root without a password, but only as that user.
>
> > My grub.conf file contains the following:
> > root (hd0,0)
> > kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.7-10 ro root=/dev/sda1
> > initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.7-10.img
> >
> > ( I set the file back to exactly how it looked when I started, any
> > changes I made were always lost after having to reboot)
>
> Have you tried uninstalling grub and running lilo? (make a backup of
> grub.conf first)
>
> > Also of interest is an error that occurred just before the kernel panic.
> > It read "pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initd) failed:2". Does
> > anyone know what the "2" error code indicates? I cannot find this
> > anywhere in any documentation of pivot_root. It seems to be a rather
> > obscure function in the first place.
>
> Best to check with the folks at kernel.org on this for the best advise.
> The kernle and init processes are complex.
>
> >>From research I have done online, I have found other posts mentioning
> >> this exact problem. However, none of them have any solutions. It was
> >> suggested that this may be due to file system corruption. I doubt this
> >> is the case as I can mount my software RAID 1 drives from rescue mode
> >> and read/write all the files just fine. Everything seems to be intact.
> >> I have not run fsck but I will do that ASAP.
>
> Well, everything listed maybe, but there is still the mbr that can get
> corrupted too....
> >
> > I have gotten my hands on the latest RH 8.0 ISOs. Could upgrading from
> > 7.2 to 8.0 cure my woes? Would this just preserve the hardware/device
> > misconfiguration?
>
> A new kernel might improve it in any event.
>
> <snip>
>
> Good luck
> --
> Keith Mastin
> BeechTree Information Technology Services Inc.
> Toronto, Canada
> (416)696 6070
>
>
>
>
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