Re: URGENT AND MAJOR RH 7.2 Problems - PLEASE HELP

On Sun Apr 27 2003 at 11:47, "[email protected]" wrote:

> I have a big 'ol problem with the RH 7.2 install. I'm installing in text
> mode, as X doesn't work with this gfx card. Here goes:
...
> <0>Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!
> Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address
> 00000000
...
> Just for kicks, I tried installing RH 8, and here's what I got:
...
> Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 09:02
> 
> And the install stops. Same error every time.
> 
> Any ideas? Please email me or call me.

I've had exactly the same sorts of errors with bad ram.

You need memtest86, download it from http://www.memtest86.com/

memtest86 is a small stand-alone memory diagnostic utility which you
actually boot the computer into in order to run it.

It works very well, recommended.

Getting it working is as simple as extracting the tarball, changing
to the source directory and running "make".  This will produce a
file call memtest.bin which is the binary bootsector runtime file.

To create a boot image and bootdisk from this binary is fairly easy:
         
  $ dd if=/dev/zero   of=/dev/ram count=2880
  $ dd if=memtest.bin of=/dev/ram bs=8192
  $ dd if=/dev/ram    of=memtest86.img count=2880
  $ cp memtest86.img  /dev/fd0
            
You can also create iso images with mkisofs specifing memtest86.img
as the cdrom's boot image (with the -b parameter).  I often do this
to data cdroms to make them a little more useful.

(And after saying all that, I've just noticed the availability of
pre-compiled downloadable boot images at the the memtest86 web
site :)

> Evan Kinney

Cheers
Tony