{"id":158,"date":"2018-09-21T11:14:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T05:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liai.co.in\/blog\/?p=158"},"modified":"2025-03-28T09:44:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T09:44:56","slug":"how-to-solve-kernel-panic-error-in-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liainfraservices.com\/blog\/how-to-solve-kernel-panic-error-in-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"How to troubleshoot kernel panic error in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/span> 4<\/span> min read<\/span><\/span>
<\/span> 28,220<\/span><\/div>

Lets learn a little about Kernel to know about its error.<\/h2>\n

Linux Kernel is one of the most important components. If we understand few of its important places where it fits and what it does, we may be able to identify its cause of panic.<\/p>\n

When a system boots the GRUB\u00a0bootloader loads the kernel image (vmlinuz)<\/strong> and the initial RAM disk (initrd or initramfs)<\/strong> from \/boot<\/strong> into memory.<\/p>\n

Point to be noted<\/strong>: This is one of the 1st places the Kernel may panic if it does not find vmlinuz<\/strong> file in this location.<\/p>\n

If this vmlinuz <\/strong>file is corrupted, the Kernel may panic.<\/p>\n

Now, lets imagine, here all goes well and kernel was able to load successfully, but kernel has lot of other operations to perform like, it has to mount the “\/” (root filesystem). But if the root filesystem is missing or corrupted, the kernel may panic.<\/p>\n

Lets say here also all goes smooth, but kernel has the main task is to communicate with all the hardware(RAM, CPU, Disk, network etc) through their drivers, and so kernel has to load all these drivers also, which is called loadable kernel modules(LKM).<\/p>\n

Now, here we may find, if a module is corrupted, missing, or incompatible<\/strong>, kernel may panic or <\/strong>If hardware (like RAM or disk) is faulty or unresponsive<\/strong>, the kernel might panic also.<\/p>\n

Then the kernel initialises the 1st Linux process called systemd with process id as 1, which in tern starts all the other system services like sshd, ftpd etc and kernel is ready to accept any systemcalls from the processes.<\/p>\n

Lets put all these in sequence for better understanding.<\/p>\n

Boot Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Missing or corrupted kernel image<\/strong> (\/boot\/vmlinuz-*<\/code>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Incorrect bootloader configuration<\/strong> (wrong GRUB entries, missing initramfs)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Corrupt root filesystem<\/strong> (bad sectors on disk, filesystem corruption)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Driver & Module Failures<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      Missing or incompatible kernel modules<\/strong> (modprobe<\/code> fails)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    2. \n

      Bad driver updates<\/strong> (Ex: GPU, storage, network drivers)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    3. \n

      Corrupt initramfs<\/strong>, causing missing essential drivers<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Hardware Failures<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n

        RAM errors<\/strong> (corrupt memory can cause kernel crashes)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      2. \n

        Disk failures<\/strong> (bad sectors, corrupt partitions)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

      3. \n

        Overheating CPU or power supply issues<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Software Bugs & Misconfiguration<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. \n

          Kernel bugs or race conditions<\/strong> (bad patches, untested kernel versions)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

        2. \n

          Security violations<\/strong> (SELinux-RHEL, AppArmor-Ubuntu misconfigurations)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

        3. \n

          Invalid system calls<\/strong> (a program forces kernel into an invalid state)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          I am sure if we know what are the differennt reasons the Kernel may panic, it becomes very easy to track the issue sequencially.<\/p>\n

          There are few logs which also may help to identofy:<\/p>\n