Newbie FC2--->FC3 install kernel panic

[Jonathan Berry]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 19:53:36 -0800 (PST), Charles Malespin
<cmalespin at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone, 
>    Long story short, I updated my kernel in FC2 to the 2.6.10 from the 2.6.5
> and I ran into some problems after that.  I couldnt boot back into FC2, it
> would just hang up and not do anything.  So I decided to upgrade to FC3 to
> start new, and got all the CDs burned etc.  Install went fine, used the
> update feature on the install cds to update FC2 to FC3.  After, when I tried
> to reboot and enter FC3 for the first time from my grub boot loader(I run a
> dual boot with XP), this is what I got at the text message screen(before any
> graphics etc show up..) 
> It says 
> 
> Ok... booting the kernel
> mkrootdev: label / not found
> mount:error 2 mounting ext3
> mount: error 2 mounting none
> switchroot: mount failed:22
> umount /initrd/dev failed:2
> kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
> 
> I checked all the media before I booted to make sure the CDs were burnt ok,
> and it said everything was fine.  I dont know what this error is, or what to
> do about it because I cant even get back into linux.  If there is any more
> info that I need to provide please let me know, but that is all I have seen
> or done since the install.  
> Thanks, Charles

Your file-system labels somehow got messed up with the upgrade.
First, let's get you a running Linux system.  Either:

If you know which partition is /, then you can edit the grub boot
line.  To do this, when GRUB comes up, press an arrow key to see the
list, then press 'a' when on the Fedora entry.  You want to point the
"root" option to the / partition directly, instead of using labels. 
This should allow you to boot your system.  For example, right now
your grub kernel line has "root=LABEL=/" on it.  If / is hda3 (third
partition on hard disk 'a' (primary master)), then you would change
that to "root=/dev/hda3" (no quotes).  Then press enter to boot.

Or:
If you do not know which partition to use, boot from the install CD 1
with "linux rescue" (or simply use the rescue disk of you have it). 
Once you have booted, you can figure out which partition is what using
"fdisk -l" and "df" or "mount"  If you cannot figure it out, post the
output of these commands and let us help you.  If everything works
correctly, I think your disk partitions should be mounted in
/mnt/sysimage/ so if you take this route, any paths should be relative
to that.

Once you have booted, you have a couple of options.  You can relabel
your disk, and everything should work fine, or you can edit your
/etc/grub.conf to not use labels.

To edit grub.conf to not use labels:
Edit the file with "vi" (a text editor) and replace the "LABEL=/" with
the proper /dev/hdx# as above (replace x# with proper letter and
number, like a3 to form /dec/hda3)..  If you are unfamiliar with vi,
use "vi /etc/grub.conf" then press 'i' to enter "INSERT" mode (arrows
more the cursor, keyboard works as expected).  Then when you are
finished press "Esc" to exit "INSERT" mode, then type ":wq" to save
the file and exit.

To relabel the filesystem, use the command "e2label /dev/hdx# /"

You also need to check /etc/fstab and be sure it is okay, as you may
have problems with it too.  Look at it with "vi /etc/fstab" and make
sure you a line like:
if you did relabel:
LABEL=/       /      ext3   defaults 1 2
or if you did not relabel:
/dev/hdx#       /      ext3   defaults 1 2

I recommend relabelling as this should reduce what files you have to
edit, and would be more like a normal install.  If something is
unclear, feel free to ask questions.

Jonathan

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