Ubuntu

Kernel Panic

Asked by Jim DeKimpe

I have a Dell Insprion 910 netbook with 2G RAM running (well..not anymore) 8.04 LTS. I'm getting a Kernel Panic. I dont know much about Ubuntu so I thought the easiest thing would be to reinstall it. It came with a "Recovery Media" CD, but I have no CD drive. I'd like to install from a 4G memory stick.

I found some stuff on how to do this, but I'm a little confused. Since my netbook is completely non-functioning, do I create this flashdrive from a separate PC running Windows? Should I just upgrade at this time?

Is there a good link as to how to do this that someone could shoot over to me??

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Adnan Quaium (adnan.quaium) said : 		#1

- To avoid kernel panic, you can roll back to an older kernel. You will find the older kernels in the boot list (GRUB). If you have only Ubuntu then at the startup of your computer may be you need to press F1 to go to the GRUB menu.

- To make an USB bootable drive visit the following link:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

This link discusses the process of making a USB drive bootable for Ubuntu step-by-step in all three operating systems.

- My advice is not to re-install the 8.04. Rather take the backup of all your necessary files by running a live USB media and wait for the next release Lucid Lynx (that is coming in April 29, 2010). That way you will get a fresh and the latest version of Ubuntu with latest kernel!

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Jim DeKimpe (dekimpej) said : 		#2

Hitting F1 or Esc during the boot does not take me to Grub. I simply get a prompt that says MBR:

After a few seconds the scrren changes to :
[ 14.196680} Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

...so I'm still unclear as to how to "roll back to a previous kernel"

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#3

> unknown-block(0,0)
oops, device (hd) is null.

Means "root=" boot option missing.
http://kerneltrap.org/node/2318

Maybe try this.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto#Manually%20boot%20into%20a%20Linux%20OS
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Installing-GRUB-natively

In case it's still an issue with initramfs.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/149565
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies

> flashdrive from a separate PC running Windows

Yep, unless you want to pay for a stick which already includes Ubuntu. (distrowatch)
Boots from USB.
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

btw. websearch query e.g. ubuntu kernel panic unknown-block(0,0) finds endless threads about this issue.

Good luck.

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