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I want to dual-boot CentOS and Windows XP. The computer has two partitions (C: and D:) and I want to install CentOS 6.2 on the D: drive.

So I downloaded the i386 ISO package, used UNetbootin to deploy that ISO on the hard drive and booted to UNetbootin. After I select the Install CentOS option, I get the following

Kernel Panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
panic occured, switching back to text console

and nothing else.

Any advice? Please note that I don't have a CD Drive, and also I do not have any USB storage at hand.

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Not really an answer, but it will be less of a hassle doing this with an USB drive and UNetBootin. – Renan May 3 '12 at 18:25
Most likely the problem is that the CD's installer isn't able to detect the root of the original CD's disk. I don't know why you're using UNetbootin, but it's clearly not designed to install CentOS. – jsbillings May 3 '12 at 19:35
@jsbillings You are most likely right. Any idea how to fix that? – Omar Abid May 3 '12 at 20:42
@OmarAbid: try following the instructions on the CentOS Wiki to install from a USB device: wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey – jsbillings May 4 '12 at 21:48

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Installing CentOS from HDD is possible, extract the ISO image onto your HDD, copy the syslinux config out, to e.g if you use grub4dos to load the installer.

Last time I managed to do this, by modifying the installer partly, which make it mount the ISO image instead of real CD, but it might be fixed already.

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Without knowing your hardware specifics it is difficult to really say why you are getting kernel panic. If you are looking for another method in creating boot media without using a CD/DVD drive I would recommend pendrive Linux (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/) it's free software that I have had good luck with in the past. (apologies if this isn't helpful due to no USB storage, I wasn't entirely sure from the post as unetbootin is used to create USB media).

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The processor is an Atom 1.6GHZ, and the laptop has 1GB RAM and enough harddrive space. Isn't that enough? – Omar Abid May 3 '12 at 18:32
What chipset is on the board that you are using? From what I have seen in the past kernel panic is usually the result of a driver issue. @Renan, wasn't so much of an answer, was wanting to leave a comment but didn't see the option to leave one on the post. – Rob May 3 '12 at 19:33

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