[afnog] Kernel Panic: No init found. Try passing init=option to kernel

[Hervey Allen]

Cletus Okolie wrote:
> Hello all,
> Pls i need help. I'm running Mandrake 9.2 on my server
> which serves my campus email reources. I'm running
> squirrel web mail on it.
> I got this error this morning: fsock(): unable to
> connect to localhost 143. on line 454.
> Anytime this message comes up no one can connect to
> the server. I consulted with a friend who said i
> should run fsck on the server. After running the fsck
> the box came up with this error. " Kernel Panic: No
> init found. Try passing init=option to kernel.
> Pls what do i do. What happens to all the mails on the
> server. I need ur help its urgent for me.
>  Pls someone rescue me
> 

As already noted, you'll want to boot with an emergency disk 
or CD and try and running fsck to repair possible damage to 
your drive.

The error you are seeing is because the boot loader cannot 
physically load the partition on your disk where your kernel 
is located - i.e. it looks as if the disk is damaged.

If you cannot repair the disk, then if you can mount the 
partition where mail resides you you can use a second disk 
that you place in the machine to copy the data off, rebuild 
your machine, bring the data back and start over. Or, if you 
have a current backup then just use this.

Hopefully you can repair the drive so that you can boot and 
use this, but I'm extremely suspicious of any drive once 
it's failed like this and would recommend moving everything 
off of the drive to a new drive - even if you manage to 
repair things using fsck.

Final note - fsck should not be run on a mounted filesystem. 
Run fsck on the physical device instead. This is easy to do 
if you boot from an emergency disk or CD.

Good luck.

- Hervey Allen