[arch-general] Thinkpad 770 - Init exists but couldn't execute it (error -26)
I apologize for crossposting from the forum, but I am not getting any replies there so far. I recently became an owner of a Thinkpad 770, which rather ancient by modern standards and decided to give it a spark of fresh life by installing Arch on it. The CD boots okay, but when I try to actually boot x86 Arch, it Kernel Panics with the subject title. It tries /bin/init, /sbin/init and /bin/sh, failing with the same message for all of them. Some searching shows that ERRNO 26 is for a busy file, but I've no clue what may be accessing all the init files at the time of the boot. I tried passing init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd, but it fails with error -2. Is systemd not on the CD? I have read about successful installations of Arch on this machine previously, but they mentioned no problems of the sort, presumably that was pre-systemd Arch. Is there anything else I could try to get it working? I am using a late 2015 ISO for the CD. -- Serge Hooge () ascii ribbon campaign - against HTML e-mail /\ - against proprietary attachments
Am 2016-04-10 um 21:29 schrieb Serge Hooge:
The CD boots okay, but when I try to actually boot x86 Arch, it Kernel Panics with the subject title. It tries /bin/init, /sbin/init and /bin/sh, failing with the same message for all of them. Some searching shows that ERRNO 26 is for a busy file, but I've no clue what may be accessing all the init files at the time of the boot.
I tried passing init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd, but it fails with error -2. Is systemd not on the CD?
I have read about successful installations of Arch on this machine previously, but they mentioned no problems of the sort, presumably that was pre-systemd Arch.
Is there anything else I could try to get it working?
I am using a late 2015 ISO for the CD.
Is there any error message when it tries to mount the root file system? Likely yes; so the problem would be that your initrd does not contain the right drivers for disk access. * reboot with the CD * adjust /etc/mkinitcpio.conf The HOOK line looks at me like the following: HOOKS="base udev modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck resume" Try to remove 'autodetect'; it may strip modules that are needed by accident; 'resume' is necessary for s2disk. * re-create your initrd mkinitcpio -k YOURKERNELVER -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img KERNELVER can be found out by ls /lib/modules Good Luck! P.S.: these things are also explained under: http://www.elstel.org/software/hunt-for-4K-UHD-2160p.html.en#kernel
* reboot with the CD * adjust /etc/mkinitcpio.conf The HOOK line looks at me like the following: HOOKS="base udev modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck resume" Try to remove 'autodetect'; it may strip modules that are needed by accident; 'resume' is necessary for s2disk. * re-create your initrd mkinitcpio -k YOURKERNELVER -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img KERNELVER can be found out by ls /lib/modules The problem is that I can't access Arch period. I get the CD splash screen, I hit enter to boot, cue the subject title.
I am not sure why error -26 either, can something else access the init files before they get launched? -- Serge Hooge () ascii ribbon campaign - against HTML e-mail /\ - against proprietary attachments
... to get the most obvious question out of the way: What's the exact processor type? And do other i686-type distributions work okay? (What's the minimum spec anyway nowadays, still CMOV? SSE?) --byte
Alright, I'll tackle those one-by-one. Jens Adam <jra@byte.cx> wrote:
... to get the most obvious question out of the way:
What's the exact processor type? And do other i686-type distributions work okay? It's a Pentium II, i686-compatible. I've seen multiple reports of various distros working a-okay on it, including Arch.
Might consider swapping it out for something better later on. Haven't tried other distros yet. Guus Snijders <gsnijders@gmail.com> wrote:
Probably a stupid question, but have you checked the integrity of the disc? If you still have it (or can find it), try the md5sum/sha-1sum of the iso, or, failing that, try mounting the cd and then copying files off it. If there are errors and/or unreadable files, any OS will complain loudly (though Windows will mostly complain in it's journal^weventlog). I verified the ISO after I wrote it, so the CD should be okay.
Also, try testing the RAM with something like memtest. It's not uncommon for older laptops to have failing dimms... I thought about it and it passed fine before. I ran it again and it returned full of errors on every land, so looks like it is indeed a failing memory.
I guess I'll order some new DIMMs and see how it goes. Thanks for the help! -- Serge Hooge () ascii ribbon campaign - against HTML e-mail /\ - against proprietary attachments
Op 10 apr. 2016 21:32 schreef "Serge Hooge" <cuznez@gmail.com>:
I apologize for crossposting from the forum, but I am not getting any replies there so far.
I recently became an owner of a Thinkpad 770, which rather ancient by modern standards and decided to give it a spark of fresh life by installing Arch on it.
The CD boots okay, but when I try to actually boot x86 Arch, it Kernel Panics with the subject title. It tries /bin/init, /sbin/init and /bin/sh, failing with the same message for all of them.
Probably a stupid question, but have you checked the integrity of the disc? If you still have it (or can find it), try the md5sum/sha-1sum of the iso, or, failing that, try mounting the cd and then copying files off it. If there are errors and/or unreadable files, any OS will complain loudly (though Windows will mostly complain in it's journal^weventlog). Just a thought. Mvg, Guus Snijders
Op 11 apr. 2016 23:17 schreef "Guus Snijders" <gsnijders@gmail.com>:
Op 10 apr. 2016 21:32 schreef "Serge Hooge" <cuznez@gmail.com>:
[...]
I recently became an owner of a Thinkpad 770, which rather ancient by modern standards and decided to give it a spark of fresh life by installing Arch on it.
The CD boots okay, but when I try to actually boot x86 Arch, it Kernel Panics with the subject title. It tries /bin/init, /sbin/init and /bin/sh, failing with the same message for all of them.
[CD testing] Also, try testing the RAM with something like memtest. It's not uncommon for older laptops to have failing dimms... (luckily, replacements are usually cheap ;) ). Mvg, Guus Snijders
Just an update, I got the RAM changed with the brand new sticks, but the problem persisted. Seems to be an issue with systemd-based distros, because I managed to get Devuan, FreeBSD and Slackware booted, while modern Debian crashed on me with the same result as Arch. Not sure if downloading a new ISO for Arch would help at all by this point, will probably end up using Devuan or FreeBSD on this machine. Not sure if I should bugreport this either. Thanks for all the help regardless! -- Serge Hooge () ascii ribbon campaign - against HTML e-mail /\ - against proprietary attachments
On mié, 2016-04-13 at 22:22 -0400, Serge Hooge wrote:
Just an update, I got the RAM changed with the brand new sticks, but the problem persisted.
Seems to be an issue with systemd-based distros, because I managed to get Devuan, FreeBSD and Slackware booted, while modern Debian crashed on me with the same result as Arch.
Serge, your problem got me thinking and I remembered a similar situation I had many years ago with some Dell OptiPlex boxes that wouldn't boot Linux even with a gun to their PSUs. The solution was to add the 'acpi_os_name="Microsoft Windows"' boot parameter to the kernel boot command line. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel- parameters.txt for all the acpi tricks you may try with yout laptop. -- Pedro A. López-Valencia http://about.me/palopezv Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. -Ronald Reagan
participants (5)
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Elmar Stellnberger
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Guus Snijders
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Jens Adam
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Pedro A. López-Valencia
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Serge Hooge