Kernel panic after "Performing switch root..."

Booting, installing, newbie
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Antipodal
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Summarizing for Béèm...

#16 Post by Antipodal »

Béèm: I really appreciate your participation in this thread. :)
Béèm wrote:You had a CD/DVD: from which you could boot puppy.
Yes, I had a DVD from which I could boot puppy
Béèm wrote:Is this CD/DVD a R or a RW type?
It is a DVD+R
Béèm wrote:If RW did you accidentally rewrite it?
I never tried to write on it.
Béèm wrote:In any case the case (upper case or capital) of the file names you showed in red are not good. That should be lower case.
As a noobie I must accept that the file names that are showed in red are not good for booting Puppy because they are written in upper case.
But I must remind you that this is the way Windows Explorer showed them to me.
I think it is very unlikely they are written in that way in my Live DVD
In my Live DVD they are most probably written in lower case.
If that were not so...
How did my Puppy Live DVD work perfectly for me for hundred or thousand of times since I received it as a present on March 22 2009 till I had the bad idea of clicking on Eric S. Raymonds link on December 27 2009?

I have read in the forum (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=48596)
converting linux files from lower to upper case apparently is a Windows explorer characteristic, however that would not affect the files on the CD
From my small experience I think that statement might be true.
Don't you?

Hoping to be hearing from you soon
Best regards. :)
Antipodal

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Béèm
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#17 Post by Béèm »

This is from your initial post[quote="Antipodal"]The last time I tried to boot it in that way, after reading in the screen
“Loading the ‘pup-412.sys’ main file…copying to ram
Time savers:
Find packages in a snap and install using Puppy Package Manager (Menu).
[url=http://puppylinux.org/wikka/HomePage]Consult Wikka[/url]
Use peppyy's [url=http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html]puppysearch[/url]

Antipodal
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Béèm: Youre message was very useful

#18 Post by Antipodal »

I checked some notes and they show I scribbled pup_412.sfs when the failures occurred. So I must have made a typographic mistake when I wrote pup-412.sys in my initial post.

I want to point out two things:
1) Thank you for calling my attention on the Lin'N'Win method. It seems very interesting and I shall ponder over it as soon as I can.
2) I haven’t tried booting another computer with my CD/DVD. So I'll try that.
Both and other things will probably keep me occupied for some days but as soon as I have time and things clearer I shall contact you by means of the forum.

Thank you again
Best regards
Antipodal

Antipodal
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Keeping the community updated

#19 Post by Antipodal »

When on March 10, 2010 I sent my last message to the forum I thought that in a few days or weeks I would be sending another message to it.

However, for different reasons, 8 months have elapsed since then and, though things are not as foggy as at that time, I still have no good explanation for why the Puppy Linux Live DVD I received as a gift has stopped working on my desktop.

During these months the most important facts I have found out are:

1) The same Live DVD boots on a friend’s notebook.
2) I have not been able to obtain a personalized attention from the manufacturers of my DVD/ CD rewritable drive so as to ask them for help in checking if my drive was working correctly.
3) I have received a magnificent attention by the manufacturers of the software I use to manage my DVD/ CD rewritable drive who, after asking me a lot of things, have assured me that the Live DVD that has stopped working on my PC is a multisession disk and suggested me to update my DVD/ CD rewritable drive's firmware in case it were not the last released.
4) I have updated my DVD/ CD rewritable drive's firmware but that hasn't changed anything.
5) I have replaced my DVD/ CD rewritable drive with a sparkling new one (different brand) but that hasn't worked either.

Regarding Lin’N’Win, I found it very interesting but I have not dared to keep Windows XP and Puppy in the same hard disk of a computer that, for reasons unknown to me, has ceased to work in a logical manner.

Shep
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Re: Kernel panic after "Performing switch root..."

#20 Post by Shep »

Antipodal wrote:In that paragraph "alt.2600" is a hyperlink. And just because I became curious about what the alt.2600 newsgroup was I clicked on it.
Since then my computer has behaved as if it were crazy.
I used to read that newsgroup on and off. If you opened only text messages I doubt that you would have picked up any malicious linux code there, but of course one never knows.
“Performing ‘switch root to the layered file system…Kernel panic – Not syncing: Attempted to kill init

Antipodal
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Thanking Shep & explaining some facts

#21 Post by Antipodal »

Thank you for your message, Shep
You wrote:
Antipodal wrote:In that paragraph, "alt.2600" is a hyperlink. And just because I became curious about what the alt.2600 newsgroup was I clicked on it.
Since then my computer has behaved as if it were crazy.
I used to read that newsgroup on and off. If you opened only text messages I doubt that you would have picked up any malicious linux code there, but of course one never knows.
Please, remember I'm almost a computer illiterate.
I clicked on that link while I was using my XP OS and though I'm not sure if you can pick up a malicious linux code doing that, I' have no doubts about having picked up malicious MS W XP code there.
You wrote:
“Performing ‘switch root to the layered file system…Kernel panic – Not syncing: Attempted to kill init
Posting from a P4 3Ghz_ASUS P5G41T-M LX3_2G RAM_DVD Write desktop with no internal HDD
Saving my stuff on flash sticks and in external USB HDD

Shep
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#22 Post by Shep »

Maybe the very first suggestion should have been to clean your CD. Perhaps there is a spec of dust, marker ink, bubble gum, greasy fingerprint, cockroach frass, mould, gravy, cheese, custard, tomato sauce, etc., etc., :lol: :lol: that is interfering with the read.

To determine the md5sum, open a terminal MENU >UTILITY> RXVT or similar
and type: md5sum /dev/cdrom
or whatever your CD drive is called.

I think you said that other distros run okay, so that sort of rules out loose RAM cards.

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jyore
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#23 Post by jyore »

Which versions on Puppy have you tried? I have had trouble booting Puppy on some i586 processors(which all Pentiums are, hints the pente-) for whatever reason (probably something in the kernel is optimized to i686 for some reason). When I had this problem, I have had it fail with the same error you experienced "failure to switch-root..." and it went into Kernel Panic.

Puppy 4.3.0 I do know for sure works on a i586 processor, maybe try that?

Shep
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#24 Post by Shep »

jyore wrote:Which versions on Puppy have you tried?
OP's story is that the live DVD used to boot on that 'puter, but for no known reason it stopped working. Nothing was changed.

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#25 Post by jyore »

Ah, ignore that last bit then :P

Come to think of it, I think I was thinking of a different error anyway.

When I had the switch-root stuff, I think there was some corruption of the puppy save file. I was doing a USB install, and it seemed to happen when I used the "Save to Partition" option rather than the "Save to File" option.

Not sure if his problem is going to be the same thing, however...

nooby
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#26 Post by nooby »

I should not really suggest things because I know too little but due to experience the OP should try to boot with pfix=ram.

He should stop the booting sequence by hitting the right thing .

Sadly I don't remember but Beem and others maybe remember.

Booting with pfix=ram allow him to find out if the pupsave files is the cause of the change of behavior.

I would recommend to try the Lin'nwin method.
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

Shep
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#27 Post by Shep »

nooby wrote:the OP should try to boot with pfix=ram.
That's a good idea, nooby. You're right, a corrupted .2fs will cause that too, I now recall. Jyore similarly agrees.

So, antipodal, you should watch the start up and when prompted hit <F2> key then type puppy pfix=ram to cause puppy to start anew without loading your personal save file. If this works, get back to us here. And if it doesn't, also come back and let us know. 8)

Antipodal
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Thank you for your help Shep,nooby & jyore!!

#28 Post by Antipodal »

I regret having taken so long to answer.

In the attachment I roughly describe what occurred when I first tried to boot my desktop with the same Puppy Linux DVD that worked in my computer and works on a friend's notebook
Attachments
Booting with Puppy Live DVD.GIF
(51.79 KiB) Downloaded 1167 times
Posting from a P4 3Ghz_ASUS P5G41T-M LX3_2G RAM_DVD Write desktop with no internal HDD
Saving my stuff on flash sticks and in external USB HDD

noryb009
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#29 Post by noryb009 »

Ok, so it's not picking up the DVD.
1) Is the CD drive able to play that type of DVD? (I did this once...)
2) Do you have the BIOS changed for DVD first?
3) Did you try selecting the boot medium? (F8 on my computer)

Antipodal
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Thank you for your time noryb009

#30 Post by Antipodal »

To question Nº1
As I have said in some of my previous posts this DVD has worked perfectly in this computer during 9 months and it still works in a friend’s notebook.
Because I was told that this problem could have been caused because the driver’s firmware was outdated, I updated it some time ago but the problem continued.
Because I was told that this problem could happen if the drive was not working correctly, I changed the old drive for a brand new one... and I didn’t solve the problem.

To question Nº2
Yes

To question Nº3
I don’t understand what you mean by that, so I’ll try to enquire what that is before answering this question.

Shep
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Re: Thank you for your time noryb009

#31 Post by Shep »

Antipodal wrote:To question Nº1
As I have said in some of my previous posts this DVD has worked perfectly in this computer during 9 months and it still works in a friend’s notebook.
Sometimes settings change of their own accord and for no known reason. :evil: :evil:

So just because you in the past set it to first try to boot from the DVD does not mean it still is set that way. :twisted: Your spreadsheet shows the computer is not succeeding in booting from the DVD. If it were, it should not have ended up in Windoze.

So recheck the bios settings, to ensure it tries to boot from the DVD before the HDD. If you are not sure how to do this, ask here.
To question Nº2
Yes
It appears the correct answer now may be No. :lol:

Booting with your CD in the drive, the behavior you are describing now (smoothly booting into Windoze) is quite different from what you reported at the start of this tread (getting partway into Puppy and then halting). So it is getting worse. :shock:

Have you got any other bootable CD or DVD (Puppy or Ubuntu) that you can try, just to prove (to us) that it will boot from a bootable DVD when one is present? :P

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#32 Post by jyore »

I have to agree with shep here...from your report, it does not seem to be trying to boot from the DVD at all. This could be a problem with the DVD being read and/or the BIOS booting that media. Please verify your BIOS settings as a sanity check for you and us. As shep said, settings can change, especially when you updated to a new BIOS version.

If it is successfully booting, I believe the DVD light would continue to be on/flash during boot up and it would need to be spinning most of the time until the OS is loaded to RAM. So if this is not happening, I'm pretty sure you will always end up with the Windows logo.

I'm assuming you never got a chance to try the "puppy pfix=ram" boot command since it would seem that the DVD is not running at all now. I still feel that your original Kernel Panic problem was do to a corrupt puppy save file and not actually the hardware or DVD, even though it now seems to be hardware or BIOS related.

To clarify noryb's question No.3, there should be a key you can press at the BIOS screen, that takes you to a boot menu. There is usually one key that goes to the BIOS setup, and the other that goes to the boot menu. He was asking if you have pressed that key, and tried selecting DVD directly. If it doesn't boot when selected directly, or if it doesn't show up at all, it would narrow down the possible causes of the issue.

Additionally, have you or can you try a fresh DVD (with a DVD type that you have verified works with your DVD player...test with a CD or movie or something) and/or a bootable USB drive?

Antipodal
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Shep & jyore: Thank you both!

#33 Post by Antipodal »

Shep said:
Booting with your CD in the drive, the behaviour you are describing now (smoothly booting into Windoze) is quite different from what you reported at the start of this tread (getting partway into Puppy and then halting).
Yes Shep, you are right, that’s what I’ve been trying to say ever since on Sun 07 Mar 2010 17:08 when I posted:
Post Subject: Picking up the thread
Subject description: I return to the problem, describe changes and ask for feedback
Gentlemen:
After 37 days since my last post, some things have changed:
a) Though Puppy's Live DVD has been most of the time loaded on the optical disk drive tray and this device has always been set as the first boot priority at the BIOS System Setup, it’s a long time since I’m not receiving screen messages related to Puppy and the system always starts up with Windows XP.
b) Regarding Flash’s question I have contacted and received additional information from Nero AG (the developers of the software that was used to burn the DVD I've been talking about).
Their last message says:
"I have analyzed the log that you have sent us; I can now tell you that the disk is not a multisession disc.
An image file was recorded to a DVD. This DVD has been completed; therefore you cannot add more information to it.
...
With this specific document you have sent us, we can tell you that this is not a multisession disc. An image has been copied to the disk. The resulting disc was a boot disk because the image contained a boot disk."
Because you both asked me to verify my BIOS settings I’ll do it again. But this time I’ll do it with a copy of the file with the BIOS settings I attached to the post I made in this thread on Mon 08 Mar 2010, 19:35 in my hand. If I find the slightest difference with it I’ll let you know.

Jyore said:
I'm assuming you never got a chance to try the "puppy pfix=ram" boot command
He’s right.

If I didn’t misunderstand him, he thinks that my original Kernel Panic problem was due to a corrupt puppy save file.
I really don’t know what puppy save file is, so I’ll do my homework studying about them.

Jyore:
Thank you for clarifying noryb’s question Nº3.
I only have one computer that works, and it’s the one who won’t boot Puppy, and I’m currently using it with XP to write this post. As far as I can recall, my BIOS screen doesn’t work with F8, it has six tabs (Main, Advanced, Security, Power, Boot and Exit) and you navigate them using the right & left arrow from the keyboard and there’s nothing in the screen that’s labelled boot medium. If it plesases you, you can take a look at the BIOS’ file attached to the post I made in this thread on Mon 08 Mar 2010, 19:35 and perhaps you will find its equivalent. I suppose it’s Boot/Boot Device Priority, but I'm not sure.

Shep said:
Have you got any other bootable CD or DVD (Puppy or Ubuntu) that you can try, just to prove (to us) that it will boot from a bootable DVD when one is present?
The answer is no. And (answering jyore) I neither have a bootable USB drive.

Regarding jyore’s
“Additionally, have you or can you try a fresh DVD (with a DVD type that you have verified works with your DVD player...test with a CD or movie or something)...?
Attachments
Samsung OEM DVD drive.GIF
(33.83 KiB) Downloaded 1069 times
Posting from a P4 3Ghz_ASUS P5G41T-M LX3_2G RAM_DVD Write desktop with no internal HDD
Saving my stuff on flash sticks and in external USB HDD

Shep
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#34 Post by Shep »

Is there anything worth keeping in your puppy file on the hard drive? I ask because, as soon as the problem is finally solved (say, about Xmas 2012 at this rate :lol: :lol: ) the first thing I'll suggest is that (if there is nothing of great value) you delete it and burn a DVD with a newer version of puppy and start afresh. :P
So if there is nothing you want to keep that you've ever created or downloaded in puppy, you could use windoze to find the file on the hard drive where puppy stuff is saved. (It's loosely known as the puppy save file, but goes under various names according to the puppy). The one common feature is that it will have the second part of its name .2fs
Don't delete it right now, just determine where it is, its name and size.

Antipodal
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Can't stop LOL

#35 Post by Antipodal »

:lol: :lol:
Shep wrote: I ask because, as soon as the problem is finally solved (say, about Xmas 2012 at this rate :lol: :lol: )
:lol: Can't :lol: stop :lol: LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:

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