Linux

end Kernel panic – not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block

Yesterday I booted up Kali Linux on my laptop only to find the error “end Kernel panic – not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block” after selecting the latest kernel.

I rebooted, chose “Advanced Options for Kali GNU/Linux” as per below, then chose an older kernel and managed to boot in to Kali Linux.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To resolve the issue I had to run the below steps to list and delete the oldest kernel installed. In the end, the cause of the error was that boot did not have enough disk space left thus could not install and run the latest kernel properly.

  • sudo apt install aptitude (aptitude is needed to list the search for the kernel versions)
  • search ~ilinux-image  (this will list all the installed kernel versions)
  • sudo apt-get autoremove linux-image-5.10.0-kali3-amd64   (this removes the version you don’t want anymore)
  • sudo reboot now

I was able to boot into Kali Linux using the latest kernel version installed after the reboot.

 

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