9a85b8d604
- new Documentation/init.txt file describing various forms of failure trying to load the init binary after kernel bootup - extend the init/main.c init failure message to direct to Documentation/init.txt Signed-off-by: Andreas Mohr <andi@lisas.de> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
49 lines
2.5 KiB
Text
49 lines
2.5 KiB
Text
Explaining the dreaded "No init found." boot hang message
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=========================================================
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OK, so you've got this pretty unintuitive message (currently located
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in init/main.c) and are wondering what the H*** went wrong.
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Some high-level reasons for failure (listed roughly in order of execution)
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to load the init binary are:
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A) Unable to mount root FS
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B) init binary doesn't exist on rootfs
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C) broken console device
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D) binary exists but dependencies not available
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E) binary cannot be loaded
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Detailed explanations:
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0) Set "debug" kernel parameter (in bootloader config file or CONFIG_CMDLINE)
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to get more detailed kernel messages.
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A) make sure you have the correct root FS type
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(and root= kernel parameter points to the correct partition),
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required drivers such as storage hardware (such as SCSI or USB!)
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and filesystem (ext3, jffs2 etc.) are builtin (alternatively as modules,
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to be pre-loaded by an initrd)
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C) Possibly a conflict in console= setup --> initial console unavailable.
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E.g. some serial consoles are unreliable due to serial IRQ issues (e.g.
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missing interrupt-based configuration).
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Try using a different console= device or e.g. netconsole= .
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D) e.g. required library dependencies of the init binary such as
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/lib/ld-linux.so.2 missing or broken. Use readelf -d <INIT>|grep NEEDED
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to find out which libraries are required.
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E) make sure the binary's architecture matches your hardware.
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E.g. i386 vs. x86_64 mismatch, or trying to load x86 on ARM hardware.
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In case you tried loading a non-binary file here (shell script?),
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you should make sure that the script specifies an interpreter in its shebang
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header line (#!/...) that is fully working (including its library
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dependencies). And before tackling scripts, better first test a simple
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non-script binary such as /bin/sh and confirm its successful execution.
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To find out more, add code to init/main.c to display kernel_execve()s
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return values.
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Please extend this explanation whenever you find new failure causes
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(after all loading the init binary is a CRITICAL and hard transition step
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which needs to be made as painless as possible), then submit patch to LKML.
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Further TODOs:
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- Implement the various run_init_process() invocations via a struct array
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which can then store the kernel_execve() result value and on failure
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log it all by iterating over _all_ results (very important usability fix).
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- try to make the implementation itself more helpful in general,
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e.g. by providing additional error messages at affected places.
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Andreas Mohr <andi at lisas period de>
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