14.3.7. Linux Kernel Panics because "init" process dies

Question:

I once had a running system but suddenly, without any changes, the Linux kernel started crashing because the "init" process was dying each time I tried to boot the system, for example like that:

...
VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem).
Freeing unused kernel memory: 140k init
init has generated signal 11 but has no handler for it
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Answer:

You probably run your system with the root file system mounted over NFS. Change into the root directory of your target file system, and remove the file "etc/ld.so.cache". That should fix this problem:

# cd /opt/eldk/ppc_6xx/
# rm -f etc/ld.so.cache

Explanation:

Normally, the file "etc/ld.so.cache" contains a compiled list of system libraries. This file is used by the dynamic linker/loader ld.so to cache library information. If it does not exist, rebuilt automatically. For some reason, a corrupted or partial file was written to your root file system. This corrupt file then confused the dynamic linker so that it crashed when trying to start the init process.

Question:

I cannot boot into my freshly installed ELDK Root-NFS because init dies with an unhandled signal like this:

Freeing unused kernel memory: 124k init
PHY: e0103320:00 - Link is Up - 100/Full
init has generated signal 4 but has no handler for it
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
Rebooting in 1 seconds..

Answer:

Your CPU does not have a floating point unit, your kernel has no math emulation (CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION) enabled but you still try to boot into a rootfilesystem intended for FPU systems.
This is to be expected for example if you try to use a ppc_6xx rootfilesystem on an 8xx system.