06 April, 2017

Kernel Panic - Not Syncing After Ubuntu Upgrade, Update

Ubuntu Desktop 11.04 started from Live CD with...
Ubuntu Desktop 11.04 started from Live CD with Install window open (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Kernel panic - not syncing! I upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04, and that is what I got.

After being away from my blogs for so long a time, building my own website, and letting it go after a year, I am back to Blogger.com.

Since my last blog, it was about 2 years already, I think more than. And I have forgotten what my e-mail was. I mean, there is one e-mail that I always use, as much as I can remember. But I tried to log in using that account, and it was not!

I tried my second best candidate, and even that one, it was not!

Searched a bit on how to find out who the blog owner is, found some things, like looking at the profile, etc. Didn't work for me.

Finally, I had to log-in with the account that I knew I always use, and checked out the settings, and I saw another e-mail account, and to my surprise! I mean, I can't believe, and I doubted, that I am using that e-mail in my blogs.

Nothing would be lost, so I tried, and what do you know? That was the correct e-mail account!

And I had to put this in writing, the error I encountered when I updated Ubuntu Linux to 16.04. That was the reason why I was anxious to start blogging again.

Kernel panic - not syncing... and some other texts.

Problem: 

After upgrading Ubuntu Linux to 16.04, I can't boot up Ubuntu Linux. Grub shows, but after selecting Ubuntu, OS stops at that line: Kernel panic - not syncing....

Solution(s):

1. boot-repair - this was the first thing I did. Using a Live CD/USD of the same distro, I booted up my laptop to Ubuntu, and issued below commands line-by-line:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair
boot-repair

There is a good graphical article here in help.ubuntu.com: Boot-Repair

That fixed Grub, and Ubuntu is able to boot up properly again. But Windows is now not showing in Grub! So I searched for possible fixes.

2. bootrec /rebuildbcd. That was the suggested fix, which requires botting up with a Windows installation CD/USD. And that was required to be run in a command prompt environment.

At first, it was not a success. Further searches, I got the idea that I need to mount Windows drive, which I unmounted when I tried to install 16.04 over my 15.04 version.

3. mount Windows partition. I booted up to Ubuntu Live CD/USB, opened up disks from terminal, click-select Windows partition, flicked the switch to mount, then remove hibernate file by adding in mount option: ,remove_hiberfile.

Then I ran grub repair utility. Still didn't see Windows in the Grub list.

4. boot-repair. I ran it a second time, and I saw that it is already seen as one of the OSes. I completed the repair.

As I was able to boot up Ubuntu Linux and Windows, I did 2 cycles of booting up Windows and Ubuntu Linux without touching anything yet. Once I am confident that Grub is properly working again, I did the last step of customization.

5. Grub Customizer. I removed Windows 8, moved up and down Ubuntu, Advanced Ubuntu Options and Windows according to my liking, and I am back.

I am posting up this article from Ubuntu Linux 16.04 distro. I hope it helps me in the future, if the opportunity comes, and I hope that it helps somebody else who face the same problem.

Till then!