[SOLVED] Unable to boot after sucessfull installation - Centos 5.2

[pojo]

Hi,

I'm on the process of moving to Linux and just installed Centos 5 on my desktop. The installation ran sucessfully but when I try to reboot I get a Kernel panic error. This is an extract of the output:


failed to stat() /dev/mapper/isw_cdagffjadd_ARRAY0
Readin all physical volumnes. This may take a while...
/dev/sda2: read failed after 0 of 512 at 1280157810688: Input/ouput error
/dev/sda2: read failed after 0 of 512 at 1280157892608: Input/ouput error
No volume groups found
/dev/sda2: read failed after 0 of 512 at 1280157810688: Input/ouput error
/dev/sda2: read failed after 0 of 512 at 1280157892608: Input/ouput error
Volume group "VolGroup00" not found
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308224
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308225
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308226
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308227
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308228
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308229
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308230
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308231
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308224
Buffer I/O error on device sda2, logical block 2500308225
mount: could not dins filesystem '/dev/root'
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

This desktop used to have Windows before, when I installed Centos I chose the option to remove all partions and create the default partition layout.

What could be causing this error?

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Something is wrong with partitions or filesystem.
Boot up from LiveCD of any Linux distro. Post the output of fdisk -l command here.

sudo fdisk -l

Or

su -
/sbin/fdisk -l

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[pojo]

Disk /dev/sda: 640,1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifierL 0xc0000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 155650 1250154292+ 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736
255 heads 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifierL 0xc0000000


Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

[computerophil]

What is about grub - how did you install it?

[pojo]

Hi there,

I'm sorry, I don't know what grub is. All I did was install Centos...

[computerophil]

Grub is the bootloader. Usually it should be installed together with the linux-distribution. Strange that you didn't notice it.
If you didn't install any bootloader at all it would explain why you don't have access to your distribution.

[devils casper]

As I mentioned earlier, something is wrong with partitions or filesystem only. Its not a GRUB Problem because grub is giving control to kernel correctly.

Boot up from LiveCD, mount /boot partition and post the contents of /grub/menu.lst file here.

mkdir boot
su -
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 boot
less /boot/grub/menu.lst
umount /dev/sda1

Post first title block ( first title, root, kernel and initrd lines ) of that file here.

[pojo]

Thanks for the suggestions. Grub was installed along with the OS, I now remember I checked that option during the installation.

It turns out that I had a RAID array configured for my dual hard drive, it was set to be RAID 0 but as you can see from my previous posts, the OS was seeing it as 2 disks so the raid controller technically wasn't doing anything. I then read in another forum that this controller needs a special driver and re-compile the Kernel so it works properly. For now I disabled the raid array and I re-installed the OS. Things are working ok now!

[devils casper]

Well done !
Do start a new thread if you have any other question.