Boot RHES4U6 Stop at kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init

[Gary L]

Hi

I have a Vmware virtual Linux box, old version is RHES4U5, yesterday I upgraded the OS to update 6, but after completed the upgrade and reboot the server, system stop at kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
Details are as follows:
...
Reh Hat nash version 4.2.1.13 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
No volume groups found
volume group "vg00" not found
ERROR: /bin/lvm exited abnormally! (pid 421)
mount: error 6 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 boot the system off a installation CD1 and go into the "linux rescue" mode. chroot /mnt/sysimage.
1. I didn't find any useful informations both in /var/log/messages and dmesg.
2. Did "fsck"
But it still doesn't work.

(Current kernel: 2.6.9-67)

How to fix the problem except re-install the OS. Any answers will be very appreciate!!!

-Gary

[skt_skt · Accepted solution]

Try following from rescue mode to confirm if any LVM disks are getting detected.

#lvmdiskscan
#vgchange -ay

[Gary L]

Hi Santhosh

Thank you very much for your reply on my two threads.

This issue has been fixed by me last week.

I copied four files located in /boot from another server, replaced the old four, include: initrd-2.6.9-67.EL.img, initrd-2.6.9-67.ELsmp.img, vmlinuz-2.6.9-67.EL, vmlinuz-2.6.9-67.ELsmp, reboot the system, it works.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1187094&admit=109447626+1198525772827+28353475

thanks again.