[SOLVED] Kernel Panic Forever

General support questions including new installations
ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

[SOLVED] Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/07 16:11:13

Hi All,

I got a very annoying problem which actually dragged me for months, and still with so much googling and testing I could never solve the problem, please kindly give me a hand..

Below is the list of hardware for my server:
- Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz 4MB 1333MHz FSB
- Asus P5KPL-VM G31 ICH7 GMA3100/1333/6A/Gb1 MATX
- 2GB A-DATA AD2G80 RAM (x 2 units)
- 320 GB W.D 3201ABYS RE2 (x 2 units)
- LITEON 16X DVD Rom Drive
- Level-One PCI 10/100MBps LAN Card
- SPI P4-450PN 12cm Fan ATX Power Supply (6 pins)
- 2 x 8cm Sleeve-Bearing Case Fan
- 2themax PS-308BK ATX Case

The problem is that after a fresh installation of CentOS 4.8 / 5.1 / 5.2 / 5.3 / 5.4 / 5.5 (I tried them all!), the server could never boot up with kernel panic!
"[b]kernel panic-not syncing VFS:unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)[/b]"

In fact, during some installations, the process could sometimes hang during the step of formatting the harddisk or installing files, and I had to do it over again. However, even I could completely install the system, it could not boot up properly with the above error.

I'm installing with DVD burnt from the official DVD ISO image. One more thing is that the "Live CD" can actually boot up the server properly, so it seems there isn't error on hardwares.

What I suspect is that it looks like the system did not load an appropriate driver for accessing the harddisk, and thus it cannot mount the drive properly. How can I make it loaded with the necessary drivers like SATA / AHCI before booting the system? Or is there some drivers needed for my motherboard?

But what I don't understand is that if there's problem mounting the drives, then how come during the installation the setup system can detect them and format them? Or even install files to them? Can somebody please kindly give me some hints on this? I'm depply frustrated! Thanks.

Anthony.

c00p
Posts: 39
Joined: 2008/10/24 20:36:07

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by c00p » 2010/09/07 18:42:41

Have you tried changing hard drive settings in your BIOS? IDE emulation, different sata settings, etc? I think you're right, it does sound like a HD recognition issue, but you don't have any exotic hardware. It "should" work ;-)

ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/08 09:14:19

[quote]
c00p wrote:
Have you tried changing hard drive settings in your BIOS? IDE emulation, different sata settings, etc? I think you're right, it does sound like a HD recognition issue, but you don't have any exotic hardware. It "should" work ;-)[/quote]

Hi c00p,

Thanks for your kind reply!

Yes, I did try changing the BIOS setting from AHCI (enhanced) to IDE (compatible), but no luck! :(
Any other solution possible? Please help! Thanks.

Anthony.

scottro
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Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by scottro » 2010/09/08 16:31:07

I've seen, in Fedora (not sure if CentOS 5 is using UUID's to label partitions yet) cases where for some reason, although grub and fstab would use the UUID (the long number) to identify disks, it then couldn't read it.

If your grub.conf or fstab has a UUID rather than something like LABEL= or /dev/sd it might be worth booting with a rescue CD and editing grub.conf or fstab, changing it to the older way of labeling the root partition, and seeing if that helps.

ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/08 17:14:26

[quote]
scottro wrote:
I've seen, in Fedora (not sure if CentOS 5 is using UUID's to label partitions yet) cases where for some reason, although grub and fstab would use the UUID (the long number) to identify disks, it then couldn't read it.

If your grub.conf or fstab has a UUID rather than something like LABEL= or /dev/sd it might be worth booting with a rescue CD and editing grub.conf or fstab, changing it to the older way of labeling the root partition, and seeing if that helps.[/quote]

Hi Scottro,

Thanks for your advice. However, it's already using "LABEL" in grub.conf but still no luck.. sigh..
It looks like I have to give up this motherboard? It's NEW! :(

Is there any driver that the "setup disk" load during the installation but not included in the installed system? I'm very confused why the disks are recognized during installation but then not able to be mounted on booting... HELP~

Anthony.

pschaff
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Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by pschaff » 2010/09/08 17:40:08

Please boot from the LiveCD and provide the results of the following, run as root:[code]
blkid
fdisk -l
lspci -m
[/code]

ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/09 02:19:17

[quote]
pschaff wrote:
Please boot from the LiveCD and provide the results of the following, run as root:[code]
blkid
fdisk -l
lspci -m
[/code][/quote]

The machine is at data centre now.. I'll try that tomorrow and let you know the result, thanks in advance!

ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/11 16:33:38

Unbelievable!!! The server can boot up now!!! :lol:
I installed CentOS 4.8 to it last time but still it could never boot up..
This time, when I arrived data centre, I immediately disconnected one of the disk (I only made partition on the master disk and disconnected the second one) and have a try.. it boots up immediately!!! I tried rebooting it 10 times or so.. it always worked!!
Then, I tried to plug the disconnected disk back to the motherboard, but connected it to SATA4 slot instead (originally SATA1 & SATA3, and IDE DVD to IDE slave).. it also worked!!! What a surprise to me!! I tried rebooting it like 10 times again to confirm it's not just a lucky one, and all worked except once it showed kernel panic..
Then, I tried to upgrade it to 5.5 using the official DVD image.. it failed and died in the middle of the upgrade process...
So, I tried again, but this time I tried a fresh installation and format both disks with partitions created.. it worked perfectly!!! Again, I tried rebooting the server many times and it always worked!! 8-)
After that, I tried something more and did a yum update.. when it finished, I tried to reboot the server again, but failed with kernel panic! I tried many times and the results were just the same.. so I boot it up with the kernel that worked with the fresh installation, it worked again.. so it proves the updated kernel from yum didn't work with my machine, so I made the original kernel to be the default selection in grub and now everything works like charm!
It seems to me beside the kernel issue, the SATA connections may also did the trick, although I don't know the logic behind.. anyway, I pulled out the 2 SATA cables and swapped them, and the server is working perfectly until now...! :-D

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!!

Anthony.

ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/11 16:35:34

[quote]
pschaff wrote:
Please boot from the LiveCD and provide the results of the following, run as root:[code]
blkid
fdisk -l
lspci -m
[/code][/quote]

Just for your reference, below is the output from your said commands...


[root]# blkid

/dev/sdb1: LABEL="/backup" UUID="ccb4fd9d-32bd-4916-a336-1e4eb4434a4d" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="/" UUID="16d656be-5c67-403d-bac1-42b35f6c0f83" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SWAP-sda2" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="/boot1" UUID="672ad3ff-2e71-4689-84b4-1ed2af2d12d7" TYPE="ext3"


[root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 1057 8385930 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 1058 38913 304078320 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 38913 312568641 83 Linux


[root]# lspci -m

00:00.0 "Host bridge" "Intel Corporation" "82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller" -r02 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:02.0 "VGA compatible controller" "Intel Corporation" "82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller" -r02 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:02.1 "Display controller" "Intel Corporation" "82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller" -r02 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1b.0 "Audio device" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1d.0 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1d.1 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1d.2 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1d.3 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1d.7 "USB Controller" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller" -r01 -p20 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1e.0 "PCI bridge" "Intel Corporation" "82801 PCI Bridge" -re1 -p01 "" ""
00:1f.0 "ISA bridge" "Intel Corporation" "82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1f.1 "IDE interface" "Intel Corporation" "82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller" -r01 -p8a "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1f.2 "IDE interface" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH7 Family SATA IDE Controller" -r01 -p8f "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
00:1f.3 "SMBus" "Intel Corporation" "N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller" -r01 "ASUSTeK Computer Inc." "P5KPL-VM Motherboard"
01:01.0 "Ethernet controller" "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd." "RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+" -r10 "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd." "RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+"

ak17_hk
Posts: 41
Joined: 2006/10/22 08:11:51

Re: Kernel Panic Forever

Post by ak17_hk » 2010/09/11 16:46:32

[quote]
pschaff wrote:
Please boot from the LiveCD and provide the results of the following, run as root:[code]
blkid
fdisk -l
lspci -m
[/code][/quote]

I found something interesting...

/dev/sdb1: LABEL="/backup" UUID="ccb4fd9d-32bd-4916-a336-1e4eb4434a4d" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="/" UUID="16d656be-5c67-403d-bac1-42b35f6c0f83" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SWAP-sda2" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda1: [b][color=FF3300]LABEL="/boot1"[/color][/b] UUID="672ad3ff-2e71-4689-84b4-1ed2af2d12d7" TYPE="ext3"

I don't know why the label for this partition became "/boot1" instead of "/boot", as the partition is really mounted as "/boot", you can see from the result of "df" command below:

[root]# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 294555760 2188772 277163072 1% /
/dev/sdb1 302779320 195552 286955336 1% /backup
/dev/sda1 101086 17841 78026 19% /boot
tmpfs 2021044 0 2021044 0% /dev/shm

During the previous trials and multiple setup, I did see occasionally that the partition "/" was sometimes hinted as being labelled as "/1" in the partitioning step during install.. I didn't pay attention to this, but now I'm thinking this could be one of the reasons that the server couldn't boot up during the fresh install as the grub was always mounting "Label=/" but never "Label=/1"...

Anyone has any idea why this could happen? :-o

Anthony.

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