Re: [TCLUG:12774] bad computer day II

[Peter Lukas <peter@math.umn.edu>]

This is more a symptom of being unable to mount the root filesystem
(ultimately the initialization scripts). When the machine boots, the
kernel loads all relevant (and available) drivers.  Once that has
completed, the task gets handed off to init.  From there, all additional
services that make the computer usable are loaded.

This most likely happened either because you lost support for the device
that contains the root filesystem in the kernel, or lost access to your
initialization scripts (/etc/rc.*). 

If you are using RedHat and  recompiled the kernel with module support for
your scsi driver (for example) and forgot to make an updated initial
ramdisk from which the scsi driver is loaded, you will experience this
problem.  

The same thing can happen if you are using a networked root filesystem and
your network connection is down.

It's not entirely impossible that your initscripts are hosed.  This often
can happen to production machines that remain up for huge amounts of
time, especially if changes aren't tested by a reboot. Check the kernel
boot messages to see if it for sure misses some vital drivers.  Next, try 
Jon's recommendation:

LILO: Linux init=/bin/sh

where "Linux" is the name of your boot image.  Passing /bin/sh to init 
will have Linux run a shell instead of init.  If that works, you'll
need to learn what happened to your initscripts:

for a RedHat system:
`rpm -V initscripts`

should inform you which files have changed or are missing.  You may want
to replace the initscripts package all together.

Peter Lukas

On 24 Jan 2000, Jon Schewe wrote:

> Timothy Wilson <wilson@visi.com> writes:
> 
> > --snip--
> > Warning: unable to open an initial console.
> > Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel
> > --snip--
> > 
> > Booting from my trusty boot floppy produced the same message.
> > 
> > I couldn't find any mention of an 'init=' option in the lilo docs. Can
> > anybody help here?
> 
> I've seen this when I didn't compile in support for virtual consoles, or when
> I'm trying to install across a serial line and Linux is looking for a real
> monitor.
> 
> As far as the init= argument.  This tells it what program to run as init.
> init=/bin/sh works pretty good for fixing things.
> -- 
> Jon Schewe 
> http://eggplant.mtu.net/~jpschewe
> schewe@tcfreenet.org
> 
> 
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