Why does Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 system fail to boot with error "read_urandom: /dev/urandom: open failed: No such file or directory"?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 system fails to boot with following error when kernel upgraded from "2.6.18-164" to "2.6.18-194"

      read_urandom: /dev/urandom: open failed: No such file or directory  read_urandom: /dev/urandom: open failed: No such file or directory  
Unable to access resume device (/dev/VolGroup00/swap)  
mount: count not find filesystem '/dev/root'  
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory  
setuproot: moving /proc failed: No such file or directory  
setuproot: moving /sys failed: No such file or directory  
switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

  • upgraded kernel from 2.6.18-164 to 2.6.18-194

  • mkinitrd package mkinitrd-5.1.19.6-28

  • lvm2 package lvm2-2.02.56-8.el5_5.1

Subscriber exclusive content

A Red Hat subscription provides unlimited access to our knowledgebase of over 48,000 articles and solutions.

Current Customers and Partners

Log in for full access

Log In

New to Red Hat?

Learn more about Red Hat subscriptions

Close

Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.