what does the kernel panic mean?

[liklstar]

Hi, all:

How should I obtain the reason of kernel panic?

How should I debug the program which result in a kernel panic?

What can I get from the panic information?


li, kunlun

[Krendoshazin]

A kernel panic is a Unix term for when the kernel says, "something has gone seriously wrong and I can't recover from it". Common sources of kernel panics come from things such as being unable to mount the root partition, and therefore it will panic and provide a message such as:

VFS: Cannot open root device "sda3" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block(0,0)

As you can see the kernel tries to be somewhat helpful about what you need to do to fix it, but often you'll probably need to google for solutions to problems.