Kernel panic – not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) during boot

If  you experience this error during boot:

 

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64
Call Trace:
[ <ffffffff81527823> ] ? panic+0xa7/0x16f
[ <ffffffff81c27432> ] ? mount_block_root+0x2160x2cb
[ <ffffffff81002930> ] ? bstat+0x2b0/0x980
[ <ffffffff81c2753d> ] ? mount_root+0x56/0x5a
[ <ffffffff81c276b1> ] ? prepare_namespace+0x170/0x1a9
[ <ffffffff81c2692a> ] ? kernel_init+0x2e1/0x2f7
[ <ffffffff8100c20a> ] ? child_rip+0xa/0x20
[ <ffffffff81c26649> ] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x2f7
[ <ffffffff8100c200> ] ? child_rip+0x0/0x2O

 

Possible issues

  1. If the /boot partition is not full
  2. The initramfs file for the kernel under /boot directory might be corrupted.
    You can rebuild it by:

    1. Starting the system using another kernel, or boot from a rescue CD (or USB storage)
    2. Mount the root and /boot partitions. The boot partition must be mounted inside the system /boot directory.
    3. cd to /mnt/sysimage directory (or the location of where root is mounted)
    4. type chroot /mnt/sysimage
    5. run (of course change the kernel version to the one you have): dracut -f /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64.img 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64
    6. when dracut completed, reboot the system.

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