Bug 698209 - Kernel panic - unable to mount root fs
Summary: Kernel panic - unable to mount root fs
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: kernel
Version: 15
Hardware: i686
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Kernel Maintainer List
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-04-20 12:47 UTC by kyle
Modified: 2012-06-04 18:32 UTC (History)
14 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2012-06-04 18:32:30 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
grub config (865 bytes, application/octet-stream)
2011-04-20 13:40 UTC, kyle
no flags Details
corrupted initramfs (668.00 KB, application/x-gzip)
2011-05-09 09:09 UTC, Jean-Roc Morreale
no flags Details
Grub config installed by Fedora 15 - KDE (765 bytes, text/plain)
2011-05-22 16:05 UTC, Liviu Mirea
no flags Details

Description kyle 2011-04-20 12:47:10 UTC
Description of problem:
I can't load fedora 15 because of a kernel panic error. Have to reboot after getting an error message saying "No filesystem could mount root, tried: ext2, ext4"


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
fedora 15 beta i686 livecd


How reproducible:
Every time I try.


Steps to Reproduce:
1.Download fedora 15 i686 livecd image and burn to cd
2.Run livecd and install to disk
3.Try booting
  
Actual results:
Kernel panic error "No filesystem could mount root"
need to reboot


Expected results:
boot into fedora 15


Additional info:
It should be noted I am trying to boot the fedora kernel/initrd with grub provided by my ubuntu installation. I was unable to get the fedora bootloader working. An error saying "no boot signature found" kept showing even though the partition with the bootloader was bootable. I'm still posting this report though because I think that part is irrelevant to the problem.

Comment 1 kyle 2011-04-20 13:40:45 UTC
Created attachment 493490 [details]
grub config

Comment 2 kyle 2011-04-20 13:42:23 UTC
Things changed once I got the fedora's bootloader working. I no longer get the errors mentioned originally. Now I'm getting this and still having to hard reboot:

RAMDISK: incomplete write (3619 != 32768)
write error
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
Pid:1, comm: swapper not tainted 2.6.38.2-9.fc15.i686 #1

I've attached my grub config.

Comment 3 kyle 2011-04-20 23:04:23 UTC
After reading that "incomplete write" error might have something to do with too little ramdisk space, I added ramdisk_size=30000 to my boot params and am now getting this error:

RAMDISK: EOF while reading compressed data
uncompression error

Also, this doesn't look right: 
kyle:/~:$ gzip -l initramfs-2.6.38.2-9.fc15.i686.img 
         compressed        uncompressed  ratio uncompressed_name
           10215424          2913438741  99.6% initramfs-2.6.38.2-9.fc15.i686.img

Uncompresses to over 2GB? That can't be right.

Comment 4 Dave Jones 2011-04-21 02:06:46 UTC
fascinating. unpack the image.  (rename it with a .gz extension, and run it through gzip. then use cpio to unpack it).  I have a sneaky suspicion that some sparse file has been added in a non-sparse manner.

Comment 5 kyle 2011-04-23 13:28:27 UTC
Unfortunately, in a moment of pure stupidity, when I ran dracut to make another initramfs, I overwrote the original and didn't make a backup so cannot do this. It may have been a freak incident because this one works fine.

Comment 6 Reartes Guillermo 2011-04-26 22:54:03 UTC
> It may have been a freak incident because this one works fine.

Back in the midle of 2010, i think, i performed a yum update on my sister's laptop (f13) and
it did not boot. I booted an older kernel and reinstalled kernel and it worked. Yum does not work 100% when updating dracut. Since it happened only once and i also overwrote the faulted dracut image i did not report it. It very rare but it is there in the dark.

Comment 7 Jean-Roc Morreale 2011-05-09 06:52:08 UTC
I get a similar error when installing fedora 15 from live cd of the beta 1 and also a nightly live cd from 07 May 2011

# RAMDISK: EOF while reading compressed data
# uncompression error
# kernel panic - not syncing : VFS : unable to mount rootfs on unknown block (0,0)

Comment 8 Jean-Roc Morreale 2011-05-09 09:09:55 UTC
Created attachment 497741 [details]
corrupted initramfs

Comment 9 Jason Ash 2011-05-12 15:45:46 UTC
I also get a similar error when installing Fedora 15 beta 1 x86_64. I am also using my Ubuntu partition with grub to boot into Fedora 15.

Here's the relevant section of my menu.lst file:
title Fedora 15Beta (2.6.38.2-9.fc15.x86_64)
        root (hd1,4)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.2-9.fc15.x86_64 ro root=UUID=4a5b49ba-a257-43d8-b24a-b056404e2516 rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.38.2-9.fc15.x86_64.img

I get an error (I apologize if all the info outputed to the screen isn't here) uncompression error
kernel panic-not syncing:VFS
unable to mount root fs from unknown block (0,0)
Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted
Call Trace: [etc]

So, I tried to run it through gzip to unpack it and use cpio to unpack it. I copied the initramfs from my fedora root partition to my ubuntu home partition in order to unpack it. The instructions I found to do this are at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:rebuildinitramfs. I didn't install fedora 15 beta on an eeepc, just an AMD 64 x2 desktop. Here's the commands that I used (I got the same complaint whether I unpacked it as a user or as sudo):

jason@jason-desktop:~/Documents/Downloads$ gunzip < initramfs-2.6.38.2-9.fc15.x86_64.img | cpio -i

gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
cpio: premature end of file

So, since I'm still a little bit of a noob, I don't know if gzip or cpio is trying to tell me that the file is corrupted. Folders named bin, lib64, sys, sysroot, and var and a file called init appeared in the folder that I unzipped it to. That's where I left off. I would be happy to do additional steps or to give additional info. Just tell me what to do, or tell me what info you need.

Comment 10 Liviu Mirea 2011-05-22 16:00:20 UTC
I too have a similar problem after installing Fedora-15-Beta-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso. Since I already have Kubuntu 11.04 with Grub2 installed, I installed Fedora and Grub both on another partition (sda3, ext4 filesystem). After restarting, I log into Kubuntu and do update-grub. I restart again, boot into Fedora and get something like "Kernel panic not syncing: VFS unable to mount root fs from unknown block (0,0)".

I noticed that Fedora's grub.conf does not have an "initrd /boot/initrd.img-something" line and there is no initrd/initramfs file in /boot. Shouldn't there be one?

I'll attach the grub.conf installed by Fedora, if it is of any help.

Comment 11 Liviu Mirea 2011-05-22 16:05:49 UTC
Created attachment 500280 [details]
Grub config installed by Fedora 15 - KDE

Comment 12 Kriton Kyrimis 2011-05-25 15:54:02 UTC
I have been bitten by this bug, also. One point that might be of relevance is that my disk is a BIOS RAID, and that I'm running the x86_64 version of Fedora 15. The problem did not occur on an x86 machine (Pentium 4) with a plain disk on which I also installed yesterday.

I've found that sometimes my computer boots fine (so it's not a matter of a corrupted initramfs), sometimes the boot progress bar slows to a crawl and, when it reaches the end, I get an error message, and I am prompted for the root password. I've only been running Fedora 15 for less than a day, so I don't know if this is a consistent workaround, but it seems that if, at this point, I issue a "reboot" command, the machine boots fine. (I also tried hitting the reset switch when it becomes obvious that the machine will not boot, but this did not help.)

It is interesting to note that I have booted my computer with the netinstall CD several times, without a problem. This might indicate that the bug was introduced in a kernel that is newer than the one on the CD.

Comment 13 Steve Kelem 2011-06-10 14:18:32 UTC
I  have the same problem with x86_64, without BIOS RAID. I am running a Dell Latitude with a dual x86_64. I downloaded the preupgrade on 6/9/2/11. After reading this bug, which is from about 7 weeks ago, it's surprising that this release hasn't been pulled until this problem has been fixed. I, and many others have our real jobs to do. I will stumble through the recovery process today, and add what I can to help make it easier for others to recover. 

By thee way, I successfully installed over a broken ubuntu release yesterday, and that gave me the confidence that this release was solid.

Comment 14 Steve Kelem 2011-06-10 17:57:46 UTC
I was able to boot with 2.6.35.13-91.fc14.x86_64, in spite of having run the advice (from https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=708343)
yum install yum-utils
package-cleanup --cleandupes

That deleted a lot of fc14 packages.

I looked in /boot, and found:
vmlinuz-2.6.398-7-30.fc16.x86_64,
but no initrd-2.6.38.7-30.fc16.x86_64.img

I created a new initrd with the command:
dracut initramfs-2.6.38.7-30.fc16.x86_64.img 2.6.38.7-30.fc15.x86_64
but got the message:
ln: failed to create symbolic link `libz.so.1': File exists

Comment 15 Steve Kelem 2011-06-10 18:25:09 UTC
Sorry for typo in Comment 14. "fc16" should be "fc15".  (I wasn't able to cut and paste.)

I tried rebooting the 2.6.38.7-30.fc15.x86_64 kernel. It got a bit further than before. I got a low-res progress bar for Fedora 15.
Then I got:

Welcome to emergency mode. Use "systemctl default" or ^D to activate default mode.
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue): modprobe: FATAL: Could no load /lib/modules/2.6.38.7-30.fc16.x86_64/modules.dep: No such file or directory

Any ideas on what to do?

Comment 16 Sookojan 2011-06-18 07:03:37 UTC
I have the same problem. 
1) I downloaded the DVD version of Fedora 15 as usual 
2) After installation from the DVD, Fedora 15 was nearly functional. I normally have some instability problems with nouveau but vga och nvidia always fix it. There was no problem with Reboot.
3) Then I as usual updated to most recent version of the software.
4) Afterwards it was impossible to boot "Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS:Unable to mount root fs on unknown - block(0,0) 
And then Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.38.6-27.fc15.i686.PAE

Note 1) I have a dualboot system with Linux on one disk and Windows on the other.
Note 2) Every time I tried to boot Fedora 15 I first get the message "pci_root PNP0A08:00: address space collision; host bridge window mem 0x000d0000-0x000dffff] conflicts with Adapter ROM [mem 0x000ce000-0x000d25f]" I never get this message for Fedora 14 but I get it for all 3 versions of my Fedora15 test (LiveCD/DVD/Updated&Crash). For LiveCD and DVD it didn't seem to matter.

My Fedora 15 failure happened 2011-06-06 and since then I have been busy beside my normal work to restor my functional version of Fedora 14!


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