Kernel panic on first boot after 2008 install

[darkscot]

When trying to do the first boot after installing 2008 it hangs with a kernel panic. I tried to install 2007 One and that did exactly the same. I used to have 2007 installed and working but since then I have added a second hard drive so I assume that is the issue. I have previously had Sabayon installed in this PC so I know Linux does work with it. The hard drive partitions are as follows:

 

SDA1 Windows XP (NTFS)

SDA2 Data (FAT32)

 

SDB1 /boot

SDB2 /

SDB3 Data (NTFS)

 

When I look at the partition table using Gparted it says that the file system on SDB2 is 'unknown'. I don't know if that is significant or just because the installation hasn't been completed?

 

The error message during boot up is as follows:

 

mounting filesystem /dev/root
mount: error 6 mounting ext3 flags default
well, retrying without option flags
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
well, retrying without any flags
mount: error 6 mounting ext3
switching to new root
ERROR opening /dev/console!!!!:2
unmounting old /proc
unmounting old /sys
switch root: mount failed:22
initrd finished
kernel panic - not syncing:attempted to kill init

[Valikhan]

Same thing happend to me installing 2007.1 at first time. I solved this problem typing noapic nolapic acpi=off during booting livecd. Then I ticked off boxes ACPI, APIC and local APIC. These are if I remember correctly Mandriva offers you in latter sections of installation guide along with bootloader options: grub or lilo and which mode: text, graphical etc.

[darkscot]

Thanks for this suggestion but unfortunately it didn't work. So I have re-installed Sabayon which has no problem with this setup. A bit disappointing but I will try 2008 on my laptop which has more conventional hardware.

Edited October 13, 2007 by spinynorman

[Ixthusdan]

Do not use a /boot partition for Mandriva. I use /, /home, and /usr. (with a swap of course) In your case, you could use just a /. Get rid of /boot.

[AussieJohn]

Hello Darkscot.

I hate to say it but the problem was not with Mandriva. I believe you created your own problem.

As Lxthusdan said, get rid of the Physical Partition Boot. By making it you have confused the system as to where to find things.

Mandriva makes a Boot directory of its own and consequently knows where info is placed.

 

The fact that it works for you in Sabayon is surely not a valid criticism of Mandriva.

And what do you mean by more conventional hardware ??.

Mandriva installs on probably more hardware variations than any other Linux OS.

 

Whenever you use any OS you really should first take the time to find out how it is setup to run before you rubbish it in comparison with another.

 

I suggest you do a reinstall and this time only create / (root) and /home (your home account) and the remainder perhaps /general ( optional but useful for lots of Music, Videos and Pictures). I have never found any benefit in creating /usr but each to his own. /swap is taken as a given.

 

If you try again to install Mandriva, you will find out why it is one of the Most popular around, all round the world except perhaps the USA.

 

Cheers. John.

[darkscot]

Do not use a /boot partition for Mandriva. I use /, /home, and /usr. (with a swap of course) In your case, you could use just a /. Get rid of /boot.

I originally tried without a /boot partition but I could not get it to boot up at all, it just went straight into Windows.

[scarecrow]

I have ABSOLUTELY no problems with a separate /boot partition in Mandy.

But... where's your swap partition? Unless you have plenty of physical RAM, you will need one.

And BTW for the root partition I prefer reiserfs: much faster with small files, and much more difficult to get fragmented than ext3.

For partitions where I store large files I prefer ext3, though.

[darkscot]

The fact that it works for you in Sabayon is surely not a valid criticism of Mandriva.

Of course it is! It is complacent attitudes like that that has resulted in users switching to PCLinuxOS!

 

And what do you mean by more conventional hardware ??.

A PC where XP and Linux are installed on the same drive. (i.e. My laptop)

 

Whenever you use any OS you really should first take the time to find out how it is setup to run before you rubbish it in comparison with another.

Although by no means a Mandriva guru I have been using Mandriva off and on since Mandrake 8.2, so I probably 'know' it better than any other distro. I installed Mandriva on my laptop as soon as I got it 18 months ago, currently using 2007 Spring. I intend to install 2008 on that when I get the chance but in the meantime I decided to try it out on the 'family' desktop. One of the downsides of Sabayon is that when upgrading the download takes about four days and you have to do a complete reinstall. That doesn't bother me too much and is actually my idea of a good time. However, it has become increasingly annoying to other family members. Hence my reasons for switching to Mandriva 2008. Unfortunately the idea completely backfired as I have been hogging the PC for the last four nights trying to get it install. I would have been happy to carry on trying to find a solution but the patience of others had worn thin. So I reinstalled Sabayon and all is well.