49 lines
		
	
	
		
			2.6 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			ReStructuredText
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			49 lines
		
	
	
		
			2.6 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			ReStructuredText
		
	
	
	
	
	
| Explaining the "No working init found." boot hang message
 | |
| =========================================================
 | |
| :Authors: Andreas Mohr <andi at lisas period de>
 | |
|           Cristian Souza <cristianmsbr at gmail period com>
 | |
| 
 | |
| This document provides some high-level reasons for failure
 | |
| (listed roughly in order of execution) to load the init binary.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 1) **Unable to mount root FS**: Set "debug" kernel parameter (in bootloader
 | |
|    config file or CONFIG_CMDLINE) to get more detailed kernel messages.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 2) **init binary doesn't exist on rootfs**: Make sure you have the correct
 | |
|    root FS type (and ``root=`` kernel parameter points to the correct
 | |
|    partition), required drivers such as storage hardware (such as SCSI or
 | |
|    USB!) and filesystem (ext3, jffs2, etc.) are builtin (alternatively as
 | |
|    modules, to be pre-loaded by an initrd).
 | |
| 
 | |
| 3) **Broken console device**: Possibly a conflict in ``console= setup``
 | |
|    --> initial console unavailable. E.g. some serial consoles are unreliable
 | |
|    due to serial IRQ issues (e.g. missing interrupt-based configuration).
 | |
|    Try using a different ``console= device`` or e.g. ``netconsole=``.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 4) **Binary exists but dependencies not available**: E.g. required library
 | |
|    dependencies of the init binary such as ``/lib/ld-linux.so.2`` missing or
 | |
|    broken. Use ``readelf -d <INIT>|grep NEEDED`` to find out which libraries
 | |
|    are required.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 5) **Binary cannot be loaded**: Make sure the binary's architecture matches
 | |
|    your hardware. E.g. i386 vs. x86_64 mismatch, or trying to load x86 on ARM
 | |
|    hardware. In case you tried loading a non-binary file here (shell script?),
 | |
|    you should make sure that the script specifies an interpreter in its
 | |
|    shebang header line (``#!/...``) that is fully working (including its
 | |
|    library dependencies). And before tackling scripts, better first test a
 | |
|    simple non-script binary such as ``/bin/sh`` and confirm its successful
 | |
|    execution. To find out more, add code ``to init/main.c`` to display
 | |
|    kernel_execve()s return values.
 | |
| 
 | |
| Please extend this explanation whenever you find new failure causes
 | |
| (after all loading the init binary is a CRITICAL and hard transition step
 | |
| which needs to be made as painless as possible), then submit a patch to LKML.
 | |
| Further TODOs:
 | |
| 
 | |
| - Implement the various ``run_init_process()`` invocations via a struct array
 | |
|   which can then store the ``kernel_execve()`` result value and on failure
 | |
|   log it all by iterating over **all** results (very important usability fix).
 | |
| - Try to make the implementation itself more helpful in general, e.g. by
 | |
|   providing additional error messages at affected places.
 | |
| 
 |