Init Does not Start after Kernel loads

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

I'm having a rather odd problem when I reboot my gentoo machine after proceeding without incident through the handbook. After the kernel loads completely and mounts the root filesystem, init doesn't start! (I have confirmed that /sbin/init is where it should be - this is shortly after having installed the latest stage3 tar ball)

The Grub config line looks like this:
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/linux-3.1.1-gentoo root=/dev/sda4 init=/sbin/init

For obvious reasons I can't do a director copy/paste from the console, however, the last messages are
VFS: Mounted root (Ext4 filesystem) readonly on device 8:4.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 416k freed
Write protecting the kernel text: 5000k
Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 1660k
init-early.sh used the greatest stack depth: 6236 bytes left

And then it hangs there and doesn't do anything. The kernel appears to be running properly as I get kernel messages indicating the success of USB devices being registered if I plug in or unplug USB devices. However, despite multiple different attempts at the boot line in grub, I have not been able to boot.

Any ideas?

turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1658

Welcome to Gentoo.
Try taking the init part out of your grub.conf

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

Thanks, initially I had line without the init part, the problem started when there was no init= parameter. I've also tried without the root= parameter too.

Is there a chance that there is an ext4 issue at work here?

Etal · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 1931

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

just gave that a try; The only difference is that the last line now reads:

mount used greatest stack depth: 6076 bytes left

In addition to the init-early.sh bit that use to be the last line.

turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1658

Doubt you need the init part. is that still out?
and boot in?
Are you sure you installed on (hd0,3)?
can you post your /etc/fstab?
and fdisk -l
_________________
Donate to Gentoo

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

Yes, the splash image is coming from hd(0,3)/boot/grub/ and the splash image is coming up correctly in the Grub screen. hd(0,1) and hd(0,0) are both windows partions, hd(0,2) is the swap partion, with the remainder being the ext4 filesystem on hd(0,4). There isn't a separate /boot partion in between. / and /boot are both hd(0,3).

The init part is out of the grub.conf as of the last attempt with the new kernel options.

I don't have access to copy and paste directly, but the stab has /dev/sda4 at mount point /, with type ext4, options set to native, and dump/pass set to 0 1.
The other line s /dev/sda3 with mount point set to none, type set to swap, options set to sw and dump/pass set to 0 0.

fdisk has hda3 set to type 82 for swap, and /dev/sda4 set to 83 for linux. sda1 is set to NTFS with type 7, as is sda2.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

Please do not paraphrase configuration files. It looks like you spent more text paraphrasing than if you had simply retyped the relevant lines.

Is the system set up to acquire a network address and run sshd? If yes, does sshd start? If yes, then login remotely and use that both to obtain configuration files and to explore potential problems with the system.

Do you use an initramfs? Can you confirm via /proc/config.gz that the running kernel has DEVTMPFS enabled?

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

init never kicks off after the kernel mounts the root filesystem, so I get no console to confirm anything. All I get is the Kernel seemingly running, able to register new devices, but I have no shell and no ability to look at anything but the kernel messages. Its as if init simply does not kick off even though its in the proper place.

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

Also, to answer your other question, I'm not using an initrd

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

This is the issue where I'm getting stuck. Is it possible that init is exiting without any indication at all?

Etal · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 1931

Can you try changing the init to "init=/bin/bash" and see if you can get a semi-functional shell? (I think in grub you can press 'e' to edit the boot options)
_________________
“And even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable.”– Hillary Clinton, Jan. 21, 2010

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

DONAHUE · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:39 am Post subject:

boot cd, mount the gentoo partitions, enter the chroot, nominally:

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

On the advice of a friend who had similar problems with ext4 on a number of the RHEL servers he administers, I tried re-building onto an ext3 partion (Before reading this) with the exact same configs as before (They were very close to the defaults that come in the stage 3 tar ball) and the system booted without any problem at all.

The only thing I did end up changing was that I missed mounting procfs in /etc/fstab. However, I think init should still be able to kick off and spawn consoles even with it not there?

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

StevieC · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

I don't have an ext4 partion laying around anymore - I coped the kernel config (out of /proc/config.gz) and other configs like make.config into tempfs and then re-created an ext3 filesystem and put them back and proceeded with stage3.

Now that I have a KDE desktop up and running, I'll be blowing away my windows partion and trying again with ext4 to see if I can get it running. Stay tuned.

DONAHUE · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:11 am Post subject:

for ext4 try compiling kernel with menuconfig edited to:

xbskid · n00b Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 12

I'm having this exact same issue on my Sun Fire V210. It happened the first time I configured 3.0.6, and somehow it works now, but now I'm having this issue again with 3.1.4. I've 'make oldconfig', so the configuration should be essentially identical as far as hardware support and setup, but it just doesn't start init. Doesn't panic either.

What do I need to post? dmesg, kernel config?

turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1658

xbskid · n00b Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 12

turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1658

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

xbskid · n00b Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 12

It seems my issue was that I had the wrong serial device set in my kernel config. Originally I had CONFIG_SERIAL_8250 (Plus _CONSOLE) built in, but by disabling those and setting CONFIG_SERIAL_SUNSU and _CONSOLE to y, my Sun Fire now starts INIT.

I would have expected the wrong serial driver to simply stop outputting to the console and continue to start processes like the NICs and SSH rather than prevent INIT from starting altogether.

Edit: I was mistaken; apparently my expectations that INIT -did- actually start and the machine booted were true.