SOLVED Kernel Panic

[mpadilla2]

I am working on a friends dual booting system. It has Salix with Windows 7. While they were using Salix the other day the system seemed to stop responding so they rebooted. On reboot this is what they now have at every attempted boot:

EXT3-fs (sda1):error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
EXT2-fs (sda1):error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
Kernel panic - not syncing: no init found. try passing init=opt to kernel. See linux documentation/init.txt for guidance.
pid:1, comm: swapper not tainted 2.6.37.6 #3

call trace:
[<ffffffff81aa1ff6>]panic+0x91/0x194
[<ffffffff8100026c>]init_post+0x8c/0xe0
[<ffffffff8210fe2b>]kernel_init+0x1d7/0x1e2
[<ffffffff810037d4>]kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[<ffffffff8210fc54>]? kernel_init+0x0/0x1e2
[<ffffffff810037d0>]? kernel_thread_helper+0x0/0x10

I googled around and the only identical problem I found was here: https://www.slacky.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=34622

But in that example the user was still able to boot into Linux because they had two hard drives. So they simply removed the Windows hard drive and made changes in the Linux hard drive.

This setup is different as Windows and Salix are on the same hard drive.

I'm wondering if someone experienced can take a look and throw some steps/suggestions my way to try and get this Salix system back up. One other note, they are able to boot successfully into Windows but not Salix.

Please let me know if any additional information is needed or helpful and I'll get it super quick.

Thank you in advance!

[mimosa]

Would it work to boot with a live cd (or USB) and fix it with that?

[mpadilla2]

Yes, I can boot from a live cd. What are the steps that I need to do after that to fix this. Please be kind and patient as I am not a super experience guru.

[mimosa]

Well, it's not immediately clear what went wrong. Maybe the filesystem was damaged by the improper shutdown, and maybe just booting the live cd will automatically repair it. If not, you will need to investigate.

Any live cd will do in theory, but Salix Live comes with some good tools and people who might help you here are familiar with them, so I recommend using it in preference. It's quite easy to put on a USB key, too.

Another thing might be reinstalling lilo - lilosetup in the System menu on the Salix Live cd is an excellent tool.

I also wonder if the Salix install was in good health in the first place. Had your friend had it long, used it much?

Finally, what was it doing when it hung?

The brute force solution would be to back up any user data from the Salix partition and simply reinstall. However, if the filesystem is damaged, you may not be able to mount it.

[thenktor]

EXT3-fs (sda1):error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
EXT2-fs (sda1):error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)

Forget these messages. It just means you have an ext4 file system.

Kernel panic - not syncing: no init found. try passing init=opt to kernel. See linux documentation/init.txt for guidance.

The kernel cannot run/find "init" on your root partition. If you have more ext4 partitions it may be possible that you mount the wrong one as root partition. Therefore we need more information:
1. boot with a live disk
2. post contents of the /etc/lilo.conf on your root partition
3. post information about your partitions: run "fdisk -l" or "parted -l"

PS: maybe running lilosetup already fixes your problem.

[mpadilla2]

I'm unable to get wireless working while booted in the live cd so I have to type what's in lilo.conf. I will include what I think are the important sections. Let me know if you need anything else besides this:

Code: Select all

boot = /dev/sda
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda1
label = Linux
read-only
#Linux bootable partition config ends
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/sda2
label = Windows
# Windows bootable partition config ends

Here is fdisk -l

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Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065  *  512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3db25cac

Device Boot    Start        End        Blocks             Id    System
/dev/sda1 *          1       5222      41945683+       83   Linux
/dev/sda2       5223       15474    82348032          7    HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3      15475      21326    47006190         83   Linux
/dev/sda4      21327      30401    72894937+         5   Extended
/dev/sda5      21327      29748    67649683+         7   HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6      29749      30401     5245191          83  Linux

lilosetup did not fix the problem.

[Akuna]

Maybe some corrupted files or bad blocks?

As root, from the livecd after unmounting your partition run :

Code: Select all

fsck -fccy /dev/sda1

[mpadilla2]

Running fsck now. It's at 29% and going slowly. Will post results when finished. Thank you everyone for your help so far!

[mpadilla2]

fsck did not resolve the problem. What next?

[Akuna]

Did LiloSetup give any error messages?

Did you check the partition to ensure nothing has been erased (i.e. in /boot)?

What specific actions were performed prior to the system becoming sluggish?