Re: [gentoo-embedded] gentoo baselayout "Attempted to kill init"

[Mike Dunn]

On 04/21/2011 02:18 PM, chris@××××××××××××.com wrote:
> I've got a filesystem created with the following toolchain: (from crossdev)
>
> arm-unknown-linux-gnu-
>
> with
>
> arm-unknown-linux-gnu-emerge system
> arm-unknown-linux-gnu-emerge baselayout
>
> I created the kernel separately, and was able to boot it with another
> filesystem that was created by somebody else.
>
> During the boot process the kernel says "Attempted to kill init" because the
> /init program exited for some reason.
> The problem is that I can't get any other error from the init program. I have
> no idea why it's exiting. It could be a missing library, segfault or bad
> invocation, so I have no idea where to start.
>
>

Beyond emerging system and baselayout, there will be some hand tweaking and
sysadmin chores involved with getting a working bootable root filesystem.

The error you see is very common with what you are doing and usually caused by
missing libraries required by the init process.  You can check which libraries
are needed by a particular utility by running (on the build host):
readelf -d /path/to/target/utility | grep NEEDED

I recommend creating a separate minimal rootfs and building it into the kernel
as an initramfs.  The minimal filesystem need only contain a statically built
busybox and a simple /init shell script that does a few things like mounting
/proc and /sys and then execs the shell.
See http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Initramfs for some guidance.  Once this has
succesfully booted, you can mount and chroot into your real rootfs and
troubleshoot it.

HTH
Mike