[SOLVED] Kernel panic after update to 3.5.4-1

[joellynn]

I have a Dell laptop with 64-bit Fedora 17 installed on it. I casually updated my system last night using yum. A new kernel was available: 3.5.4-1. After what appeared to be a successful update, I restarted my computer. The new kernel was selected by default and then I received a kernel panic warning:

1.891663] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
1.894005] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.5.4-1.fc17.x86_64 #1
1.895845] Call Trace:
1.896550]  [<ffffffff81602c18>] panic+0xba/0x1c9
1.897942]  [<ffffffff81cf70a0>] mount_block_root+0x1d6/0x287
1.899606]  [<ffffffff81cf71a8>] mount_root+0x57/0x5b
1.901060]  [<ffffffff81cf72e9>] prepare_namespace+0x13d/0x176
1.902732]  [<ffffffff81082270>] ? release_tgcred.isra.7+0x30/0x30
1.904500]  [<ffffffff81cf6e06>] kernel_init+0x1cf/0x1d4
1.906038]  [<ffffffff81cf6614>] ? do_early_param+0x8c/0x8c
1.907637]  [<ffffffff81616124>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
1.909312]  [<ffffffff81cf6c37>] ? start_kernel+0x3c4/0x3c4
1.910921]  [<ffffffff81616120>] ? gs_change+0x13/0x13
1.910975] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=0c45, idProduct=643d
1.910980] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
1.910983] usb 1-1.5: Product: Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_0.3M
1.910987] usb 1-1.5: Manufacturer: CN0JYKKC7248721E0521A01

The computer hangs there and does nothing more. The Caps Lock light flashes. I have to perform a "hard reboot" by pressing and holding the power button. Luckily, I can select the previous kernel: 3.5.3-1, and run normally, so the situation isn't exactly urgent, but it's not satisfactory for me either. I perused the internet a little and found some discussion of trying to reinstall the kernel, but it wasn't clear to me how to go about this through yum or using the command "rpm".

One more interesting fact: I ran "yum history info" on the update, and it has a line that reads

Return-Code       : ** Aborted **

But what this means is not clear to me, since the update appeared to complete normally.

Does anyone have any ideas or advice?

Thanks,

Joel

[petergdoyle]

I am having the same problem on Fedora 17 after I did a yum update.

I initially thought my disk had been corrupted. I rebooted and got into grub and started up with the previous kernel version and everything was okay.

I am not sure what is wrong but I am sure there will be a patch or fix as others get the same issues. For now, I will run with the previous kernel. You probably can too

[runmachine]

That may help you:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=262786

---------- Post added at 02:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:28 PM ----------

If the new kernel not satisfy with you.Just remove it.

[Ericg]

I had a similar problem with the last kernel update (not this one, the one before it or the one before that) I just booted into the old kernel until I saw another kernel update come through a few days later. Update. Reboot into newest kernel. No kernel panic. Probably just a bug someone didn't catch due to a specific hardware combination.

Things happen, I know its the Kernel and there should never be a panic, but they do happen. I'm just glad Yum keeps the older kernels installed so we can just boot into the last one

[joellynn]

I appreciate all of the replies. It sounds like I can just wait and see if there is either a fix or just wait until the next kernel update and in the mean time continue to use 3.5.3-1. Still, I would be interested to know if perhaps something just went wrong since yum indicates that the transaction was aborted. If this is the case, I would like to know if there is a straightforward way to attempt to reinstall the new kernel. Again, I appreciate all of the suggestions that have been made so far. It at least puts my mind a little more at ease to know I'm not alone.

Joel

[caliban]

After updating Fedora via the box showing up on my desktop, I could not access Firefox. I tried reinstalling Firefox to no avail via yum. Noted kernel was 3.5.4-1. Finally, with yum update I had success using Firefox.
New kernel is now 3.6.2-4. Think I'll stick to yum update from terminal in the future.
-- caliban

[joellynn]

After the next kernel update, the problem vanished. I guess it was just an isolated incident!