On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 05:19:21PM -0500, Yanick Quirion wrote: > mount: error 6 mounting ext3 > pivotroot: pivot_root (/sysroot,sysroot/initrd) failed: 2 > freeing unused kernel memory: 304k freed > kernel panic: no init found. try passing init=option to kernel > Anyone have an idea? I have this problem as well, on my machine at work. I'm too lazy to fix it, but I believe the answer is: You have ext3 compiled as a module. Your root system is in ext3 format. The kernel has no idea how to mount / in order to get access to /lib/modules/2.4.xxx/kernel/fs/ext3.o. (Yet another chicken-and-the-egg scenario) The 'proper' way around this, if you wish to continue to compile ext3 as a module, is to provide an initrd image via the init= boot parameter. The initrd image is a compressed ram file system that is extracted at boot time. It contains just enough modules to get the kernel to the next stage of boot - mounting /. So, either your initrd image is corrupt, or you are not properly passing init= on the kernel command line (/etc/grub.conf or /etc/lilo.conf). Usually you won't see an obvious problem, as ext2 and ext3 are almost entirely compatible (assuming the ext3 journal is flushed) and the kernel knows it can continue loading with ext2. Just realize that / is no longer journalled, which means a system crash may be painful... Cheers, mark -- mark@xxxxxxxxx/markm@xxxxxx/markm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx __________________________ . . _ ._ . . .__ . . ._. .__ . . . .__ | Neighbourhood Coder |\/| |_| |_| |/ |_ |\/| | |_ | |/ |_ | | | | | | \ | \ |__ . | | .|. |__ |__ | \ |__ | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them... http://mark.mielke.cc/