Re: (no subject)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Annoyances] (no subject)


> 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.
> -- 

From the error message, it's an ext3 filesystem on an IDE hard disk, so
there
shouldn't be any need for an initrd to get it working (e.g. like there would
if it was
on scsi disks under hardware raid).

There are two possible explanations: either he's made a mistake in grub.conf
(e.g. root=/dev/hda3 when / is on /dev/hda5). Unlikely as it's pretty easy
to copy
the original entry. Or, ext2/ext3 support have been compiled as modules
rather
than compiled statically into the kernel. An easy mistake to make for
someone
compiling their first kernel.

Regards,

Andy Wallace