How to solve "Kernel panic - not syncing - Attempted to kill init" -- without erasing any user data

Question

I was trying to update libc in our Ubuntu server but it failed and now when I reboot the server I get a error message:

Kernel panic - not syncing - Attempted to kill init!

and it just hangs.

What is the solution to this problem? The server is used by 10 people so I don't want to reinstall erasing their data.

Kernel panics happen for a variety of reasons. Often due to hardware failure... You'll need to check out /var/log/dmesg and /var/log/syslog to get more info about what actually happened. — hsanders, Oct 12 '12 at 21:58
You should try to boot using a "Live CD", and then mount the HDD partition that held `/` and `/lib`. Then try to restore the libc files. — sawdust, Oct 12 '12 at 23:43
This isn't really the right forum for this question. You're better off asking on superuser.com or ubuntu.stackexchange.com. This question looks like it'll be migrated to superuser.com shortly. — Craig Ringer, Oct 13 '12 at 07:40
I've same issue while I dist upgrade from 14.04, I'm even not able to boot with old kernel and rescue more, how did you solve it. ???? — Nullpointer, Oct 27 '16 at 15:08
This is why I don’t like Ubuntu. Why can’t it just work smoothly. — atulkhatri, Jul 18 '20 at 09:29

score 24 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 18 '22 at 03:55

24

if the full message is:

kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill inint !
PId: 1, comm: init not tainted 2.6.32.-279-5.2.e16.x86_64 #1

then you should have disabled selinux and after that you have rebooted the system.

The easier way is to use a live OS and re-enable it

vim /etc/selinux/config
    ...
    SELINUX=enforcing
    ...

Second choice is to disable selinux in the kernel arguments by adding selinux=0

vim /boot/grub/grub.conf
    ...
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-selinux-2003040709 ro root=/dev/hda1 nousb selinux=0
    ...

source kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill inint !

edited Dec 18 '22 at 03:55

Henry Ecker

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answered Nov 07 '13 at 15:07

gustavodiazjaimes

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24

selinux != linux firewall! – mmtauqir Nov 28 '13 at 23:15
The second does not work when using `qemu` 2.6.0 for an ARM debian (rasbian) system. – dotslash Jun 30 '16 at 02:34
2

The link is down by the way, I don't know what it was pointing to. – ljleb Jun 13 '21 at 20:28

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '14 at 06:42

3

Mount the centos live cd and boot
Go into rescue mode and wait for it load up
Read the terminal to see where it mounted the OS
Go into OS
vim or nano /etc/selinux/config
Make sure SELINUX=enforcing or disabled

answered Apr 18 '14 at 06:42

Michael Mikhjian

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score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 22 '16 at 12:09

2

Booting from CD to rescue the installation and editing /etc/selinux/config: changed SELINUX from enforcing to permissive. Rebooted and system booted

/etc/selinux/config before change:

SELINUX=enforcing and SELINUXTYPE=permissive

/etc/selinux/config after change: SELINUX=permissive and SELINUXTYPE=permissive

edited May 22 '16 at 12:09

cubbuk

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answered Dec 10 '14 at 14:27

Foued GR.

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 01 '16 at 07:04

2

Solution is :-

Restart
Go to advanced menu and then click on 'e'(edit the boot parameters)
Go down to the line which starts with linux and press End
Press space
Add the following at the end -> kernel.panic=1
Press F10 to restart

This basically forces your PC to restart because by default it does not restart after a kernel panic.

answered Mar 01 '16 at 07:04

Pranshu

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This didn't work for me on Ubuntu 14.04 – zanbri Jul 15 '16 at 17:20
Didn't work here either – Apr 11 '18 at 16:44
This didn't work for debian 9.x ): – Boris Valderrama Mar 02 '19 at 06:13

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 27 '15 at 01:01

I just came across this problem when I replaced a failing disk. I had copied over the system files to the new disk, and was good about replacing the old disk's UUID entry with the new disk's UUID in fstab.

However I had not replaced the UUID in the grub.conf (sometimes menu.lst) file in /boot/grub. So check your grub.conf file, and if the "kernel" line has something like

kernel ... root=UUID=906eaa97-f66a-4d39-a39d-5091c7095987

it likely has the old disk's UUID. Replace it with the new disk's UUID and run grub-install (if you're in a live CD rescue you may need to chroot or specify the grub directory).

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 17 '15 at 17:09

1

Mount remount the /
Eg.

mount -o remount,rw /dev/xyz /
sed -i 's/1 1/0 0/' /etc/fstab
sed -i 's/1 2/0 0/' /etc/fstab
reboot

edited Aug 17 '15 at 17:09

benka

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answered Aug 17 '15 at 16:41

Kuldeep patil

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 25 '16 at 00:02

1

At grub screen goto boot in recovery.

As booting hold ESC

It should take you into a gui menu. Open command and fix selinux.

Also I suggest run the clean broken packages

answered Jul 25 '16 at 00:02

Adam Micheal Lee Barnhart

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I did not get to a gui menu – mlhDev Apr 18 '23 at 02:48

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

0

Use Rescue mode with cd and mount the filesystem. Try to check if any binary files or folder are deleted. If deleted you will have to manually install the rpms to get those files back.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/92946/cannot-boot-because-kernel-panic-not-syncing-attempted-to-kill-init

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

Community

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answered Oct 13 '12 at 07:35

Ranjith Ruban

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On a Debian based system such as Ubuntu, it would be the .deb's rather than the rpm's. If recovering the system fails, copying off the user data directories before reinstall is another option. Actually, that is the first thing that should be done BEFORE any further attempt at repair. Go to your local office supply, get an external hard drive, boot from a liveCD and back up the user data. Then think about repair. – Chris Stratton Dec 21 '12 at 16:43

How to solve "Kernel panic - not syncing - Attempted to kill init" -- without erasing any user data

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