[Tfug] Need help with kernel panic

[John Gruenenfelder]

Hello TFUG,

After performing a routine package update last night using aptitude I can
no longer boot my system.  :(

I'm fairly certain the kernel was *not* one of the updated packages.  If it
had been then I would have kept the previous kernel around to fallback on.

This system is my Samsung laptop running Debian/testing (mostly) with
kernel 3.16.0-4_amd64.

Normally, I'm pretty good at debugging and fixing these sorts of issues,
but here the stack backtrace isn't very useful, and the panic prevents me
from scrolling back in the console buffer.  I've attached a screenshot to
illustrate since, at the moment, I have no other way to copy the info.

I tried settimg the video mode with the hope of seeing more text
on-screen.  I edited GRUB 2.0's kernel line and added
"video=LVDS:1600x900", but nothing changed (I tried other resolutions, too)
and there was no error.

As you can see from the timestamps, the panic occurs very early, but it is
actually after the initrd has prompted me for my LUKS passphrase and
unlocked the main partition (which contains the LVM volumes, one of which
is root).

I'm thinking that last night's update also updated the contents of the
initrd, and that now it contains something panic-worthy.  One of the
updated packages was systemd... perhaps it is the culprit (just a random
guess)?

Any ideas as to the cause?  No?

Okay, then any ideas on how to further debug the problem?  Am I not setting
the video mode properly?  GRUB is already running at a high resolution, but
it resets back to 80x25 text mode when the Linux boot starts.  I don't know
if this switch is done by GRUB or the kernel, though.

(Temporarily stuck in Win7 on my laptop...  Augh!)

--
--John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS  --  http://weaselreader.org
"This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood
of my enemies!"
        --Sam of Sam & Max
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