Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 78177
kernel panic if no hard drive installed
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:48:34 EDT
Description of Problem: I was testing the install using the netboot floppy. Started to boot okay, and then kernel panicked. Quick look determined that I'd unplugged the harddrive cable accidentally while messing around with some other hardware. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How Reproducible: Yep. Steps to Reproduce: 1. unplug harddrive 2. try to run installer from netboot floppy (possibly in other ways too) 3. Actual Results: panic Expected Results: Some sort of pretty little dialog box telling me that I'm a moron for not having a hard drive. Additional Information: Or actually, I suppose if some hardware incompatibility is causing a drive to not be recognized even when it exists, it might be good for the message to explain that perhaps that is the problem. Not just the moron thing.
Did the kernel panic before the anaconda loader started? If so this bug should be filed against the kernel component.
Yeah, it happens right away, very early as the kernel is starting up. The actual messages is: "<0>Kernel panic: attempted to kill init!"
The same happened to me (hard drive cable disconnected), but I couldn't even get ISOLINUX to boot the CDs for me. Don't know if this is the best place to report it, but anyway, here's what isolinux said: ISOLINUX: loading spec packed failed, trying to (can't read what I wrote :-) it ... ISOLINUX: extremely broken bios detected, last ditch attempt with drive=9F ISOLINUX: disk error 01, AX=425, drive 9F Boot failed: press any key to retry... Now, everything worked after I found the unplugged cable and the CD was ok (mediacheck passed). Also, the press any key to retry is wrong, if you press a key nothing happens.
Does this persist with the third public beta?
Dunno. Tomorrow I'll yank out the hard drive and try again. :)
Works for me now.