running kernel on QEMU

Question

I face this message:

Failed to execute /initKernel panic - not syncing: no init found. 
Try passing init=option to kernel.

I am using this command line:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda disk.img -kernel /home/marssonubuntu/linux_qemu/linux-3.3.3/arch/x86/boot/bzImage -initrd my-initramfs.cpio -append "root=/dev/sda rdinit=/sbin/init"

on qemu, the full message is:

Failed to execute /sbin/init Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. 
Try passing init= option to kernel. see Linux Documentation/init.txt for guidance. 
Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 3.3.3 #1 
Call Trace: 
[<ffffffff811d78b4>] ? panic+0xa9/0x197
[<ffffffff811d6927>] ? init_post+0xb2/0xb2
[<ffffffff812aad96>] ? kernel_init+0xff/0xff
[<ffffffff811dcd44>] ? kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[<ffffffff812aac97>] ? do_one_initcall+0x121/0x121
[<ffffffff811dcd40>] ? gs_change+0xb/0xb

Answer 1

I used:

qemu-system-x86_64 --enable-kvm -m 1024 -machine smm=off -cdrom mint.iso -boot order=d mint_hdd.img

Specifying RAM size i.e.

-m 1024

fixed this issue and booted into mint successfully.

Answer 2

I had this issue, and increasing the guest's RAM fixed it. Try passing -m 1024.

Answer 3

Ok, here is my Qemu command line:

KERNEL=vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686
INITRD=initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686
APPEND="root=/dev/sda2 ro "
IMG=qemu.img
qemu -kernel $KERNEL -initrd $INITRD -append "$APPEND"  -hda $IMG

$ file $IMG $INITRD $KERNEL
qemu.img: DOS/MBR boot sector
initrd.img-2.6.32-5-686: gzip compressed data
vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686:    Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage

Answer 4

I had the same problam and I managed to build mini Linux following the steps below.

Steps in Building Base Mini Linux Distro

1. Compile the kernel and see the result in terms of size of the compilation
2. Create rootfs image (format as ext2 mke2fs for example) that will contain the root system and some basic programs (used busybox)
3. Mount rootfs and create basic directories and files
4. Compile busybox and install it inside the rootfs
5. Check the kernel size (with or without modules enabled) and Ciar image (with mkdosfs applied to the image linux.img example) that contain linux.img grub or syslinux setting the boot process of the system
6. After rootfs created and linux, copy for syslinux.cfg linux.img , bzImage, into the linux.img
7. Applies the command sync syslinux to finish the linux.img image ;
8. After all settings and installations test it with qemu, for example, the following command qemu linux.img
9. If everything's OK, the system will boot to the basic shell.

But the current attempts can not enter the terminal ( shell )

I leave these steps here in case they can help someone or someone can help me.