Kernel panic installing RHEL 5.3

[Rick Stevens]

Brenda Radford wrote:
> My install of RHEL 5.3 is giving me a Kernel panic message. This is the
> output on the screen.
> 
>  
> 
> Memory for crash kernel (0x0 to 0x0) notwithin permissible range
> 
> Red Hat nash version 5.1.19.6 starting
> 
>     Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while . . .
> 
>     Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
> 
>     /proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
> 
>     Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
> 
>     Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
> 
>     0 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
> 
> Unable to access resume device (dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01)
> 
> mount: Could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
> 
> setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
> 
> setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
> 
> setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
> 
> switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
> 
> Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
> 
> What do I do?

I have seen this on a number of systems under CentOS 5.3.  I'm not sure
what's causing the problem, but it appears to be a driver in the kernel
with 5.3 that's required in the initrd for the kernel but isn't being
included by mkinitrd or anaconda.

I haven't seen this issue with 5.2 systems updated to 5.3--just raw 5.3
installs--which leads me to believe it's an issue with anaconda as
opposed to the kernel or mkinitrd.

So, install 5.2, update to 5.3 and you should be good to go.  I would
file a bugzilla about this.  Be specific.  Include the computer model
(or motherboard make/model), disk controller and disk types, video card,
everything.  The more information they have, the better chance they have
of fixing it.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                      ricks at nerd.com -
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