Please Help!! - "Kernel Panic - Attempted to kill init!"

[Rick Stevens]

Steve Kasian wrote:
> Hi.  I am writing about a problem that seems to be fairly common, yet
> nobody has ever offered up a solution or any useful advice for getting
> past it in the last 2 years anywhere I've found on the net.
> 
> Upon attempting to install RedHat Linux (in my case v9), I am greeted
> with the exact same stack dump everyone else has reported with this
> problem, followed by:
> 
> "Kernel Panic - Attempted to kill init!"
> 
> followed by an immediate system hang.  The only keys that work beyond
> this point are some combinations of Ctrl/Alt
> PrintScrn-SysRq/Pause-Break, but they just spit out useless information.
> 
> I have tried every single variation of commands available from the Boot
> : prompt, and to no avail.  I have tried everything everyone on the net
> has offered up as a solution to others with this problem, and to no
> avail.
> 
> I am attempting to install RedHat Linux 9 using the following:
> 
> Motherboard: Soyo KT-400 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition(No onboard video)
> Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
> Memory: 512MB Samsung DDR333 RAM
> HDD: 40GB Maxtor UATA/133
> 
> The motherboard has various onboard components which have all been
> switched off in the bios, just to be on the safe side. 'Didn't help at
> all.
> 
> Just like everyone else, I have used multiple media types/installation
> methods to the exact same end.
> 
> I downloaded and burned the very latest version of ISO CD1 tonight, as I
> thought there might be an update included in it which would address this
> issue.  Still didn't work.
> 
> I am lost.  I would very much appreciate it if someone could send some
> --useful-- advice my way!!  If I could afford it, I'd offer a reward!!
> 
> Please, no complaints about my text not being exactly how you like to
> read it, etc...  this is childish and pointless.  I am only looking for
> responses from those of you whom actually KNOW EXACTLY what the deal is
> with this error, and can give me an educated response as to how I can
> correct it.  No "iffy" suggestions please.  I have spent literally weeks
> going through hundreds of suggestions and had absolutely no luck with
> any of them getting me anywhere other than frustrated as all heck.

As far as iffy answers go, that is a very, VERY generic message that can
be caused by a whole bunch of different things.  Telling us that you
only want definitive answers is absolutely guaranteed to not elicit any
responses here.  You've already made up your mind that _you_ are the
best judge of this.  You aren't.

Now, I used a similar board many moons ago and had few issues.  First
off, test the memory. Download memtest86 from http://www.memtest86.com
and test the hell out of it.

Open the box and remove and reseat ALL of your PCI cards, memory sticks
and the CPU.  It's amazing how many machines that fixes.  A little dirt
or card misalignment can really hose the machine.

Next, do NOT install using the default ext3 filesystems.  If you get
to the disk partitioning screen (disk druid), manually partition your
drive and make sure the partitions are set up with ext2 filesystems.
You can convert to ext3 after the system is installed.

I doubt seriously that you've used every option at the boot prompt.
It would help if you can give us a list of the ones you have used.
For example, did you use "noapic"?

Finally, drop the vitriol.  The people who contribute to this list are
all volunteers--not one of us is a Red Hat employee nor do we receive
ANY form of recompense for our efforts beyond the gratitude of people
we help.  An attitude such as yours is guaranteed to elicit either
no response at all, or worse, a cascade of hate messages casting
aspersions about your ancestry and what your siblings do to each other.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  BASIC is the Computer Science version of `Scientific Creationism' -
----------------------------------------------------------------------