Linux Format forums

[Mark]

Hello,

I am a brand new out of the box atempting convert from XP.
I've tried FC3, SUSE 9.2 and am now trying Mandriva as my IT8212 is no supported by the other distros.

I put the DVD in that I recieved with LXF67, it installs fine and sets up the EXT3, no problems there. But when I boot it hangs, I selected another boot option off the boot loader and it hangs on "kernel panic : no init found". It says it tries to bypass without init but nothing happens.

I am very much a novice on Linux so an idiot style walk-through is needed. I have tried searching the internet but the subjects cover Mandrake 10.0 (so wrong Kernel) and the others mean nothing to me as I haven't a clue how to get to a prompt line.

I don't know what other information to write but if I need to get any other info i'll get it.

Thank you in advance.

Mark

[dandnsmith]

Which boot loader are we talking about - the one installed with mandriva?
What other option(s) have you tried?
Does XP still boot OK?
_________________
Derek

[Mark]

Yeah it's the Mandriva boot loader
Boot options are
- linux-smp - hangs after kernel panic
- linux - hangs, I assume it's the kernel panic as there is no text
- linux-nonfb - hangs after kernel panic
- failsafe - hangs after kernel panic
- windows - doesn't do anything as the hard drive is swapped with the linux hard drive

It says -
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 6 mounting ext3 flags defaults
well, retrying without the option flags
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
well, retrying read-only without an flag
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot,/sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/sys failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Initrd finished
Freeing unused kernel memory: 296k freed
Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

Then it hangs, I'm sorry I didn't include this before but I didn't read it before. As I said before XP is on another drive which I swap out in a drive caddy so it isn't effected.

During the install I only installed the ext3 partion, no swap.

I hope this helps, thank you for the reply.

Mark

[dandnsmith]

There is a problem with that filesystem on which you think you have installed the system. After that it fails to get an initrd file, which is probably vital to successful running (may set up some drivers for some of your hardware).

You mention a 'caddy' - is the drive for linux ide connected?

I think I would go back to the installation DVD, and read the Readme and any notes files. They may tell you that, when booting from it there is an option for rescue - the one you could try next. I can't say what it is, as I haven't tried this particular DVD installation (sometimes you do 'linux rescue', sometimes there is a function key to press ...)

If you can get into the rescue mode, you could try to see if it recognises the filesystem ...
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Derek

[Mark]

I'll give that a go in a bit,

I've recently re-installed with a swap partition and using the Grub boot loader instead of lilo and still no joy.
Yes the drive is on IDE-RAID, it's the silly ITE IT8212 RAID, the biggest pain in the rear ever. if it wasn't for that i'd have SUSE running by now.

I'll give rescue a go if it works, cheers.

Mark

[Mark]

I got into the rescue mode and got a command prompt.

I typed lspart and it found hda6 ext3 Mandriva LE 2005. But while searching it came up with a load of other errors i believe they are driver related.

[dandnsmith]

I assume you refer to the drivers for the IDE-RAID: if so, I would concur with your conclusion.

Alas, I have no experience with these
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Derek