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gmane.linux.usability.annoyances |
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<[email protected]> |
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, Ellis D. Cooper wrote:
> 2. I am terrifically annoyed about the fact that I built a box just for
> Linux, installed Red Hat 8.0, can go online, etc. But I did this so I could
> learn about how the kernel works by playing around with it, so I have to be
> able to recompile it. So, I recompiled it, and the new entry appears in
> GRUB, but that just stalls with the message:
>
> "EXT2-fs warning (device ide0(3,1)): ext 2_read_super: mounting ext3
> filesystem as ext2
> VFS: Mounted root (ext2 system) read only.
> Freeing unused kernel memory: 108 k freed
> Warning: unable to open an initial console.
> Kernel panic: no init found. Try passing init= option to kernel."
>
> I have put this message to at least half a dozen "gurus" and "experts" and
> I have done grep and locate all over my system, trying to find out the
> exact cause (insofar as it can be determined) of this particular message.
> (I used grep
> because I thought I would try to find the sourcecode that produces the
> message.)
$ cd /usr/src/linux
$ grep -r 'Try passing init=' .
./init/main.c: panic("No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.");
> Nobody seems to be able to tell me the exact meaning of this
> message, and the exact thing to do to get rid of it. I am not interested in
> going Debian or something else. I want to know what is going on from an
> authority who can explain every line of this message. Not being able to
> find an authority leaves me very annoyed.
It means that the following commands could not be found by the kernel:
/sbin/init
/etc/init
/bin/init
/bin/sh
The usual reason is that the kernel has been unable to mount the root (/)
filesystem. The usual reason for /that/ is that root uses a filesystem type
that hasn't been compiled into your kernel, or it's on a device, that
requires a driver that hasn't been compiled into your kernel.
> EDC
Best Regards,
Alex.
--
Alex Butcher Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK Need reliable and secure network systems?
PGP/GnuPG ID:0x271fd950 <http://www.assursys.com/>