System fails to boot after a kernel update, message "No working init found" is seen on the console

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • After rebooting upon updating the kernel or rebuilding the initramfs, the system crashes after printing the following message

    [    2.511242] Failed to execute /init (error -2)
    [    2.513506] Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst for guidance.
    [    2.521529] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 4.18.0-147.5.1.el8_1.x86_64 #1
    [    2.526958] Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.11.0-2.el7 04/01/2014
    [    2.529764] Call Trace:
    [    2.531206]  dump_stack+0x5c/0x80
    [    2.533120]  ? rest_init+0x79/0xaa
    [    2.535099]  panic+0xe7/0x247
    [    2.537051]  ? __do_execve_file.isra.38+0xb8/0x910
    [    2.539591]  ? rest_init+0xaa/0xaa
    [    2.544050]  kernel_init+0xf7/0xff
    [    2.546105]  ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40
    [    2.547940] Kernel Offset: 0x18400000 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)
    [    2.553057] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst for guidance. ]---
    

    Timestamps and addresses may vary.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
    • fapolicyd
    • dracut
    • ldd

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