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I have a machine originally built with Ubuntu 18.04 installed. Asus Prime X470-Pro motherboard with a Ryzen 2400G processor. This ran successfully for many months. Recently I upgraded over the net to 20.04 and ran that successfully for a few weeks. But then 20.04.1 came out, and I upgraded again.

The system now gets a kernel panic on boot, quite soon into the process. I had a spare SSD in the machine, so I did a fresh install of 20.04.1 from DVD onto the SSD. That install boots and runs successfully. I can then successfully mount and examine the old system disk while running off the SSD install.

I'd really like to repair the OS installation on the old system disk, if possible; I'd appreciate some tips on how to proceed. I include what appears on the screen at the kernel panic. Note that the incomplete top line is probably announcing the motherboard and BIOS.

Thanks for any assistance.

-PRO, BIOS 4024 09/07/2018
[   5.186898] Call Trace:
[   5.187011]  dump_stack+0x6d/0x9a
[   5.187132]  panic+0x101/0x2e3
[   5.187249]  do_exit.cold+0x21/0xb5
[   5.187371]  do_group_exit+0x47/0xb0
[   5.187500]  __x64_sys_exit_group+0x18/0x20
[   5.187638]  do_syscall_64+0x57/0x190
[   5.187769]  entry_sYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9
[   5.187916] RIP: 0033:0x7efc125dd136
[   5.188046] Code: fa 41 b8 e7 00 00 00 be 3c 00 00 00 eb 15 66 0f 1f 44 00 
00 89 d7 89 f8 0f 05 48 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 22 f4 89 d7 44 89 c0 0f 05 <48> 33 
00 f0 ff ff 76 e2 f7 d8 64 41 89 01 eb da 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00
[   5.188369] RSP: 002b:00007ffdb82090b8 EFLAGS: 00000202 
ORIG_RAX:00000000000000e7
[   5.188554] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000557686d62704 RCX: 
00007efc125dd136
[   5.188724] RDX: 0000000000000001 RST: 000000000000003c RDI: 
0000000000000001
[   5.188894] RBP: 000000000000000a R08: 00000000000000e7 R09: 
ffffffffffffff80
[   5.189064] R10: 0000557686663890 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 
0000000000000003
[   5.189234] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 
0000000000000000
[   5.189501] Kernel Offset: 0x4000000 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation 
range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)
[   5.189731] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! 
exitcode=0x00000100 ]---
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  • Status please...
    – heynnema
    Aug 21, 2020 at 14:50
  • Sorry; life intervened. FWIW, I had fsck'ed the failing system disk, and all was well. I doubt memory is the problem, because the system ran fine on 18.04 and 20.04, but I will do a memtest. I'll update the board's BIOS as soon as I can. Aug 22, 2020 at 18:10
  • With the Ryzen, memory can always be an issue, and it doesn't make any difference the OS version. Do the BIOS. That'll probably fix it. If it doesn't fix it, then run memtest please. Report back.
    – heynnema
    Aug 23, 2020 at 23:29
  • BIOS updated, memtest run 4 passes (15:03 run time) with 0 errors. To my surprise, instead of immediate kernel panic, something called BusyBox comes up with an "(initramfs)" prompt. Exiting from that results in similar-looking kernel panic. Aug 25, 2020 at 12:26
  • Is there any more information given before the initramfs prompt?
    – heynnema
    Aug 25, 2020 at 12:44

1 Answer 1

1

fsck

To check/repair your old disk...

- boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB in “Try Ubuntu” mode

  • open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T
  • type sudo fdisk -l
  • identify the /dev/sdXX device name for your "Linux Filesystem"
  • type sudo fsck -f /dev/sdXX, replacing sdXX with the number you found earlier
  • repeat the fsck command if there were errors

- type reboot

BIOS

Asus Prime X470-Pro

You have BIOS 4024, from 09/07/2018.

There's a newer BIOS available, version 5603, dated 8/10/2020, and can be downloaded here.

Note: Confirm that I have the correct web page for your motherboard.

Note: Have good backups before updating the BIOS.

memory

Ryzen processors have notorious memory compatibility issues.

Let's run a memory test...

Go to https://www.memtest86.com/ and download/run their free memtest to test your memory. Get at least one complete pass of all the 4/4 tests to confirm good memory. This may take many hours to complete.

Compatible memory list: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-X470-PRO/HelpDesk_QVL/

Update #1:

Boot to Recovery Mode and type:

sudo update-initramfs -c -k $(uname -r)

reboot

Update #2:

We reinstalled Ubuntu.

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