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I was trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 via a pendrive on my laptop and I keep on getting a "kernel panic" error. I think it is mostly a hardware issue because earlier it had windows installed and after a few months, the system started hanging real bad (not the usual windows degradation).

I am a long time Ubuntu user so decided to install Ubuntu on the laptop. However, it keeps on failing. I even tried install XUbuntu and it also fails.

Also, I could not figure out how to get the complete trace and hence clicked a photo of the console. If you need a complete log, it would be great if you can tell me what I need to do to capture it.

You can see the error below:

enter image description here

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  • Possible duplicate of this: askubuntu.com/questions/218260/…
    – Jos
    May 19, 2014 at 12:10
  • I don't think this is a NULL reference error; I've now observed this bug 2 out of 3 times in upgrade scenarios from 13.10 to 14.04. Typically the system has been upgraded from 13.04 or earlier. Versions that went from 13.10 to 14.04 seem to be unaffected. Something to do with alsa/pulseaudio.
    – The Dude
    Sep 9, 2014 at 17:44

1 Answer 1

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Official Workaround for 14.04 upgrade kernel panic

As listed in LaunchPad, response #32 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/1269731

1) Disable upstart re-exec whilst running the upgrade:

    $ sudo su -
    # mkdir /root/bin
    # ln -s /bin/true /root/bin/telinit
    # chmod 755 /root/bin/telinit
    # export PATH=/root/bin:$PATH
    # dpkg --configure -a && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

With many thanks to James Hunt for the answer.

Old Answer

I was able to reboot, log back in and type

sudo dpkg --configure -a

to get the package manager in a stable state. If I saw it doing anything to DKMS or kernel modules, I hit Ctrl-C. Once that completed, I then typed this:

sudo apt-get purge dkms

That should remove DKMS and the associated modules that are causing the crash. For me, it was the wl-broadcom drivers (when I was supposed to be using b43 + firmwarecutter)

If it doesn't happen at the same point in the upgrade process, (e.g. before a dkms kernel module), then you may have some type of hardware failure. Typically it is disk, but it could be RAM. Run an old version of PartedMagic or SystemRescueCd, and check out the SMART values on your disk. Remember, there's a failure bathtub curve - lots of failures when the drive is ew, levels off a bit, and then spikes back up as the drive ages. Used to be drive failure MTBF (mean time between failures) started to pick up at 40,000 - or about 4.5 years. However, this was the 90s, when drives were meant to last 5 years. Judging by the average warranty these days, drives are meant to last 2 - 3 years. If you get anything more than that, you are lucky.

So, good luck, and I hope a drive failure is not what you are observing. Hopefully you configured your /home directories on another partition so that you can wipe / without wiping home (or can transplant it to another drive). I wonder why distros don't suggest this by default?

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