new FC5 2.6.16 install - exec of init () failed!!!

[sbbaxter]

Hi. I have a Shuttle FX43G with an AMD 2.2G processor and 160G SATA disk.

I've been running FC3 2.6.11.8 for a year, and have just upgraded it to FC5.

I've downloaded a vanilla 2.6.16 kernel, copied the .config file from the 2.6.11.8 build and done a:
make menuconfig
make oldconfig
make modules
make modules_install
make bzImage
make install

I now get the following error on boot up:
Red Hat nash version 5.0.32 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
WARNING: can't access
exec of init () failed!!!: No such file or directory
Kernel Panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!


If I go back and run the 2.6.11.8 kernel, it boots fine. If I run the 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 kernel which installed during the FC5 upgrade (from DVD) I get the exact same error as above.

What does this message mean? How can I troubleshoot this???

Thanks

[PSY0NIC]

I had a lot of problems with that kernel as well. Everything installed ok but when it booted the first time I had similar errors. What I did was boot in rescue mode from the DVD, chroot to the harddrive and ran yum update which installed the 2080 kernel then rebooted again and everything worked including my broadcom network adaptor which also only worked when booting from the CD but not from the harddrive.

[sbbaxter]

Ok - I did that, and YUM installed kernel 2096.....but I still get the same error

Red Hat nash version 5.0.32 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
WARNING: can't access
exec of init () failed!!!: No such file or directory
Kernel Panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

[sbbaxter]

I'm convinced it's something to do with LVM and the logical volume not booting, or the wrong one being booted, or something - but I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any suggestions?

[PSY0NIC]

you're right. I reinstalled FC5 using a default install and let disk druid layout the drives for me, did the update and yes, there is a LVM problem. If you customize the partitions manually not using logical volumes, it works fine.

[sbbaxter]

That sounds like what I want.

Can I remove the LVM usage without re-installing? I have no need for LVM - quite happy to address my SATA disk directly as /dev/sda

How do I do that?

[sbbaxter]

in looking at LVM and what it does, I can see the boot process is running 'vgscan' and then 'vgchange -a y'

[root@media etc]# vgscan
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
[root@media etc]# vgchange -a y
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active

What's next? What is being called to respond with 'WARNING: can't access'?

Red Hat nash version 5.0.32 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
WARNING: can't access
exec of init () failed!!!: No such file or directory
Kernel Panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

[sbbaxter]

OK - found why this is happening.

By default 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 and 2096 and 2.6.16 and 2.6.16.9 are not compiling the 'init' command into initrd.

Finding this out meant buying a new disk, doing a fresh install and lots of work.

If I now go back to all the kernels (initrd files) I have installed, it's the same case. If I remove the 'init 5' or 'init 3' or 'init 1' off the grub.conf, all the kernels work.

Question for you now is, how do I get mkinitrd include the 'init' command????

[sbbaxter]

I've answered this now too.

Set the default runlevel in /etc/inittab - FC5 mkinitrd doesn't seem to support the 'init' command in the boot string

I'd always set the run level manually, or as part of grub.conf!!