Kernel panic: No init found , try passing init= option to kernel

[Sonuby]

Hi all long time no problem huh:D
Well heres the deal . I bought a toshiba laptop to install mandrake 9.0 I read a few threads on dual booting win XP and linux so I knew I had to wipe the hard drive and formatt a partition in a fat32 fiole system and reinstall XP on that and leave the rest blank for linux. I tried to use the linux cd for repartitioning and it didnt work. It would be very long winded to retrace the steps so I'll just give you the results.
If i try to open linux failsafe I get:
"Kernel panic: No init found , try passing init= option to kernel"
When I try to open windows I get a screen that says there was some kind of problem with windows and that it shut down.
I had to change my bios to boot the cdrom first to even install linux but now I cant get a cd to work.
Any help would be great.
Thanx Sonuby

[jetblackz]

Impossible: if you set BIOS up to boot CD first, it will. Or else, CD or hardware failure. Try to boot a Windows CD.

No, you didn't, don't and won't have to reformat. Get a tool to resize XP. Partition Magic does it. And you can dual-boot using NT bootloader.

http://jetblackz.freeservers.com/ConfiguringMultiBooting.html

[Sonuby]

I can hear the cdrom kick in and try to run, I set the bios through XP ,it was just a couple of clicks, and I tried to wipe XP so I dont know whats up but I cant get the rom to work. I put in a cd restart and it gos to the choose Linux, Linux non-fb, failsafe, windows splash screen

[Sonuby]

Will booting a windows cd tell me if its a cdrom problem because I tried and it doesnt work.

[YorkshireYank]

Are you pressing F12 at the toshiba screen to get the "boot from" option?

like someone said earlier - as long as you're following the correct procedure... if the CD won't boot then it's a hardware failure which is really unlikely in this situation because it's a new machine and you said the drive initiates on boot so it has power and is responding.... t has to be a setup issue

i have a toshiba latop - don't remember the modem off the top of my head but all the BIOS settings are controlled thru windows control panel - i don't think it has a regular BIOS.... and at the toshiba screen it says "press F12 for boot options" - or something along those lines then you just choose the CD as the boot device

you may be able to fix the problem with XP if you manager to boot from the XP CD, you cna then run recovery console and use the command 'chkdsk /r' - (it fixes a multitude of problems)

i have seen that particular error when booting mandrake 8.2 but didn'thave patience to fix it so i just reinstalled

it might be a good idea to reload the system with the toshiba restoration cd's then install partition magic and resize the partition to leave free space at the end of the drive and install mandrake in that free space

[Sonuby]

Thanks for the advice I'll have to try the f12 key some time. The tech guy at toshiba told me to hold the "C" key and that worked, I dont know if thats a model specific deal or what but I thought something like the f12 key would work I just wasnt picking the right keys.
Anyway I picked up Partition Magic and will be trying again tonight, so expect more dumb questions tomarrow :D
Thanx again for all the help.

[hlrguy]

http://www.linux-laptop.net/

One stop shopping.

hlrguy

[Sonuby]

Thanks for the link its a good one but it figures that mine isnt listed its a 5205-S503 :rolleyes:

[hlrguy]

This is your opportunity. Use the rest of the Toshiba laptops (I would think getting it set up on one model close to yours would work) and then you can submit your case histroy for the next person. :D

hlrguy