LPIC-2 Linux Kernel and System Startup — All Questions With Answers

Question 1mediummultiple choice

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A system administrator needs to ensure that a custom kernel module loads automatically at boot. The module is named 'my_driver' and is built for the current kernel. Which configuration file should be modified to ensure the module loads automatically?

Question 2easymultiple choice

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During boot, the kernel outputs a message indicating that a required device driver is not found. Which command can be used to rebuild the initramfs to include the missing driver?

Question 3hardmultiple choice

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A server with a custom kernel fails to boot after a kernel update. The system displays a kernel panic: 'VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)'. The root filesystem is on an LVM volume. What is the most likely cause?

Question 4mediummultiple choice

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A system administrator wants to change the default kernel boot parameters temporarily to debug a boot issue. Which step should be taken at the GRUB menu to modify kernel parameters for the next boot only?

Question 5easymultiple choice

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After installing a new kernel, the system administrator notices that the system boots to the old kernel by default. Which command should be used to update the GRUB configuration to boot the new kernel?

Question 6hardmultiple choice

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A developer has compiled a custom kernel with a new feature. The kernel modules are installed in /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/. However, when the system boots, the kernel fails to load some modules with 'Exec format error'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 7easymultiple choice

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A system administrator needs to find out which kernel parameters were passed at boot time. Which command displays the kernel boot parameters?

Question 8mediummulti select

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Which TWO of the following commands are used to manage kernel modules? (Select TWO.)

Question 9hardmulti select

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Which THREE factors can cause a kernel panic during boot? (Select THREE.)

Question 10hardmultiple choice

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A company runs a critical web server on a custom-built Linux distribution. The server has been stable for months, but after a recent kernel update from version 5.10 to 5.15, the server experiences intermittent crashes. The crashes occur under heavy load and are accompanied by kernel oops messages mentioning a NULL pointer dereference in a network driver. The network driver is a third-party module that was compiled against the old kernel. The system administrator has recompiled the module against the new kernel, but the crashes persist. The server has 64 GB of RAM and uses a bonded network interface with two 10 GbE NICs. The kernel oops trace points to a function in the bonding driver. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the crashes?

Question 11hardmultiple choice

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A systems administrator is troubleshooting a server that fails to boot after a kernel upgrade. The boot process hangs at the stage where the kernel attempts to mount the root filesystem. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Question 12easymulti select

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Which TWO of the following are valid methods to modify kernel parameters at runtime without rebooting?

Question 13mediummultiple choice

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Refer to the exhibit. The system boots successfully, but the root filesystem is mounted as read-only even after the boot process completes. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

[    0.000000] Linux version 5.10.0-8-amd64 (debian@amd64) #1 SMP Debian 5.10.46-4 (2021-08-03)
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/vg-root ro quiet
[    0.000000] Memory: 1024M/2048M available (8192K kernel code, 1024K rwdata, 2048K rodata, 512K init, 256K bss, 1024K reserved)
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/vg-root ro quiet
[    1.234567] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.43.0-ioctl (2021-02-07) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
[    2.345678] EXT4-fs (dm-0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[    3.456789] systemd[1]: systemd 247 running in system mode. (+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ +LZ4 +ZSTD +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN2 +IDN -PCRE2 default-hierarchy=hybrid)

Question 14hardmultiple choice

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You are a systems administrator for a company that runs a critical web server on a Linux system. The server has been running stably for months, but after a recent kernel update from version 5.10.0-8 to 5.10.0-9, the server fails to boot. The boot process starts, but after the kernel loads, the system hangs with no output on the console. You have physical access to the server and can interrupt the boot process. The server uses GRUB 2 as the bootloader and the root filesystem is on an LVM logical volume. The previous kernel (5.10.0-8) is still present in /boot. Which of the following is the best course of action to restore the server to a working state?

Question 15easymultiple choice

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A system administrator needs to add a kernel module to the kernel at runtime without recompiling. Which command should be used?

Question 16mediummultiple choice

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During boot, the kernel panics with 'VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)'. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Question 17hardmultiple choice

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A technician is troubleshooting a system that fails to boot after adding a new SATA SSD and editing /etc/fstab. The error message is 'Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,17)'. What is the most likely issue?

Question 18mediumdrag order

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Arrange the steps to configure a Linux server as an NFS client that mounts a remote export.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

Question 19mediumdrag order

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Order the steps to configure a Linux system as an SSH server with key-based authentication.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

Question 20mediummatching

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Match each Linux filesystem feature to its description.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts

Matches

Journaling filesystem with extents and delayed allocation

High-performance 64-bit journaling filesystem

Copy-on-write filesystem with snapshots and compression

Advanced filesystem with volume management and checksumming

Network filesystem for sharing directories over a network

Question 21mediummatching

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Match each Linux boot component to its role.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts

Matches

Bootloader that loads the kernel and initramfs

Temporary root filesystem for early boot drivers

Init system that starts services and manages targets

Compressed Linux kernel image

Older initial ramdisk for booting

Question 22easymultiple choice

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A system administrator needs to include a custom kernel module in the initramfs to support a root filesystem on a USB device. Which command should be used to rebuild the initramfs with the updated kernel?

Question 23mediummultiple choice

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During boot, the kernel panics because the root filesystem cannot be mounted. Which kernel parameter should be added at the GRUB prompt to try an alternative root device?

Question 24hardmultiple choice

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A system administrator compiled a custom kernel module for a new hardware device. After copying the .ko file to /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/, the module is not loading automatically at boot. What is the most likely cause?

Question 25mediummultiple choice

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An administrator wants to compile a new kernel module that is not yet in the tree. What file should be referenced to ensure the module is built with the same configuration as the current kernel?

Network Topology

Question 26easymultiple choice

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Which file is used by GRUB2 to load the kernel and initramfs?

Question 27mediummultiple choice

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An administrator wants to ensure a kernel module is loaded automatically at boot for a hardware device. Which file should be modified to add the module name?

Question 28hardmultiple choice

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After upgrading the kernel on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, the system fails to boot because the initramfs is missing. Which command can be used to regenerate the initramfs?

Question 29easymultiple choice

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An administrator wants to disable the graphical splash screen during boot. What change should be made in /etc/default/grub?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ cat /etc/default/grub
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Question 30mediummultiple choice

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A system has multiple kernels installed. Which command shows the version of the currently booted kernel?

Question 31mediummulti select

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Which two utilities can be used to load kernel modules? (Choose two.)

Question 32hardmulti select

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Which three steps are required to build a kernel module from source located outside the kernel tree? (Choose three.)

Question 33easymulti select

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Which three directories or files are typically associated with the Linux kernel? (Choose three.)

Question 34hardmultiple choice

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A user reports that an external USB hard drive is not detected when plugged in. The system uses a standard kernel with USB support. What is the most likely reason?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# Disable USB storage to prevent unauthorized devices
blacklist usb_storage

Question 35mediummultiple choice

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A system administrator has multiple kernel modules that depend on each other. Module A must be loaded before module B. How can this dependency be ensured automatically when using modprobe?

Question 36easymultiple choice

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After installing a new kernel on a system using GRUB2, which command should be run to update the boot menu configuration file?

Question 37hardmultiple choice

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During boot, a server's video driver causes a freeze. At the GRUB2 menu, the administrator needs to interactively add the kernel parameter 'nomodeset' to the boot entry. Which key should be pressed to access the kernel command line editor?

Question 38mediummultiple choice

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An organization is migrating from SysV init to systemd. What systemd command should be used to check the status of the HTTP service?

Question 39easymultiple choice

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A new network card driver module is not being loaded at boot. The administrator wants to ensure the module is loaded automatically without modifying the kernel command line. Which file should be used?

Question 40hardmultiple choice

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During kernel development, a developer modifies only a few source files in a module directory. Which make target should be used to rebuild only that module without compiling the entire kernel?

Question 41hardmultiple choice

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An administrator needs to disable IPv6 on a running system without rebooting and make the change permanent across reboots. Which set of commands should be used?

Question 42easymultiple choice

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After creating a new partition table on /dev/sda, what command should be run to install GRUB2 to the Master Boot Record?

Question 43easymultiple choice

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Which systemd target is equivalent to the traditional SysV runlevel 3 (multi-user text mode)?

Question 44mediummulti select

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Which TWO of the following commands can be used to list currently loaded kernel modules? (Choose two.)

Question 45hardmulti select

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Which THREE of the following are standard steps in compiling and installing a custom Linux kernel from source? (Choose three.)

Question 46mediummulti select

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Which TWO of the following commands are used to load a kernel module manually at runtime? (Choose two.)

Question 47mediummultiple choice

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Refer to the exhibit. A system administrator has configured the above in /etc/default/grub. After running update-grub, what will be the boot menu behavior?

Exhibit

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Question 48hardmultiple choice

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Refer to the exhibit. Which kernel version will be booted by default when using a standard GRUB2 configuration that uses the symlinks vmlinuz and initrd.img?

Network Topology

Question 49easymultiple choice

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Refer to the exhibit. What is the root filesystem device as specified in the kernel command line?

Exhibit

BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-9-amd64 root=/dev/sda2 ro quiet

Question 50easymultiple choice

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A system administrator is troubleshooting a hardware issue that occurs during boot. To monitor the kernel messages in real-time, which command should be run?

Question 51mediummultiple choice

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A developer compiled a custom kernel, installed it, but the system hangs before init starts. The previous kernel works. Which step was most likely missed?

Question 52hardmultiple choice

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An administrator wants to limit the size of the kernel ring buffer to prevent memory overflow. Which kernel boot parameter should be used?

Question 53mediummultiple choice

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A server with multiple network cards needs a specific kernel module loaded before network configuration. Where should loading be configured for early boot?

Question 54easymultiple choice

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A kernel module has been recompiled. Which command updates the module dependency information?

Question 55hardmultiple choice

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Which sysctl parameter controls the system's behavior when a kernel oops occurs (e.g., automatically reboot)?

Question 56mediummultiple choice

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During boot, the system displays 'unable to mount root fs on unknown-block'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 57easymultiple choice

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To list all currently loaded kernel modules, which command is used?

Question 58hardmultiple choice

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An administrator needs to ensure a kernel module is never loaded, even if requested. Which file should be used?

Question 59mediummulti select

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Which TWO commands can be used to rebuild the initramfs on modern Linux systems? (Choose two.)

Question 60hardmulti select

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Which THREE kernel boot parameters can be added to the GRUB command line to enable verbose debug output during boot? (Choose three.)

Question 61mediummulti select

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A system fails to boot due to a corrupted initramfs. Which TWO methods can be used to recover? (Choose two.)

Question 62easymultiple choice

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Refer to the exhibit. Which module is currently in use by another module?

Exhibit

Module                  Size  Used by
usb_storage            24576  0
crct10dif_pclmul       16384  0
crc32_pclmul           16384  0
ghash_clmulni_intel    16384  0
aesni_intel           131072  0
x86_pkg_temp_thermal    16384  0
coretemp               16384  0
kvm_intel             102400  0
kvm                   139264  1 kvm_intel

Question 63easymultiple choice

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Refer to the exhibit. Which kernel parameter is responsible for reducing the amount of kernel messages displayed on the console?

Exhibit

BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash

Question 64hardmultiple choice

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A company has a fleet of servers running a custom Linux kernel version 5.4. They have developed several in-house kernel modules that interface with proprietary hardware. Due to a security vulnerability, the company decides to upgrade all servers to kernel version 5.10. After upgrading the kernel on a test server, the custom modules fail to load with the error 'Invalid module format' or 'disagrees about version magic'. The system administrator must resolve this issue for all servers. The modules are closed-source and cannot be modified easily. The administrator considers the following options. Question: What is the most effective course of action to load the custom modules on the new kernel?

Question 65easymultiple choice

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A system administrator notices that the 'pcspkr' kernel module is causing beeps on the server console. The administrator wants to prevent this module from loading permanently. Which of the following is the correct method to blacklist the module?

Question 66mediummultiple choice

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A developer compiled a custom kernel version 5.15.10 and ran 'make modules_install' followed by 'make install' on a system using GRUB 2. After rebooting, the system still boots the old kernel. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Question 67easymultiple choice

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A system fails to boot with a kernel panic: 'Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)'. The administrator suspects the root filesystem is not being detected. Which kernel parameter should be checked first?

Question 68mediummultiple choice

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An administrator needs to add support for a new hardware device by compiling a kernel module. After compiling the module against the current kernel source, the module fails to load with 'modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'mymod': Unknown symbol in module'. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Question 69mediummulti select

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Which two of the following are valid methods to pass kernel parameters during the boot process? (Choose two.)

Question 70easymulti select

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Which three of the following are required steps to compile and install a custom Linux kernel from source? (Choose three.)

Question 71hardmultiple choice

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A system administrator is responsible for a production server running a custom-compiled Linux kernel version 5.15. After a routine update of the kernel source and recompilation, the server fails to boot. The error message on the console is: 'Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.' The administrator verifies that the root filesystem is intact by booting from a live USB and mounting the root partition. The filesystem contains the usual /sbin/init (symlinked to systemd). The administrator also checks the boot loader configuration and sees that the kernel command line includes 'root=/dev/sda1 ro'. The init binary exists and is executable. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this boot failure?

Question 72mediummultiple choice

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A company develops a custom PCIe device driver as a kernel module. After installing a new kernel version 5.10.50 via a distribution update, the existing driver module fails to load with the error: 'insmod: ERROR: could not insert module mydriver.ko: Invalid module format'. The administrator checks the kernel version and sees that the module was compiled against a previous kernel version 5.10.45. The driver source code is available in /usr/src/mydriver. The administrator needs to get the driver working with the new kernel. Which of the following is the correct course of action?

Question 73mediummultiple choice

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A data center administrator is troubleshooting a server that hangs during boot after a kernel update. The server uses UEFI and GRUB 2. The administrator observes that the server displays the GRUB menu, selects the new kernel entry, but then the screen goes blank and the system does not respond. The administrator can boot the previous kernel from the GRUB menu successfully. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this issue?

Question 74hardmultiple choice

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A company runs a high-frequency trading application that requires extremely low latency. The system administrator has compiled a custom Linux kernel with various real-time patches and tuned kernel parameters. After deploying the new kernel, the application performance degrades significantly. The administrator suspects that kernel preemption settings are causing context switch overhead. Which of the following actions should the administrator take to diagnose and optimize the kernel preemption model?

Question 75hardmultiple choice

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A Linux system administrator is tasked with upgrading the kernel on a server running a custom compiled kernel (version 4.19) with many in-house modules. The new kernel (5.10) has significant changes, including a different API for some module functions. After compiling the new kernel and the modules, the system boots but some modules fail to load with 'Unknown symbol' errors. The administrator needs to identify which symbols are missing and fix the modules. Which of the following is the most effective approach?

Question 76easymulti select

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Which TWO of the following commands can be used to load a kernel module into the running kernel?

Question 77mediummultiple choice

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A system fails to boot with the error shown. Which kernel parameter should be added to the kernel command line to resolve the issue?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

[    0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet
[    1.234567] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)
[    1.234568] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.10.0-8-amd64 #1
[    1.234569] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b_prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014

Question 78hardmultiple choice

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A system administrator has compiled a custom Linux kernel (version 5.15.19) with ext4 filesystem support built as a module. The administrator installed the kernel to /boot and built an initramfs using dracut with default options. After rebooting, the system fails with a kernel panic: 'VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)'. The administrator confirms that the root partition is /dev/sda1 formatted as ext4 and that the kernel configuration includes the ext4 module. The kernel command line includes 'root=/dev/sda1' and 'rd.auto'. The administrator also notices that the initramfs file is only 5 MB in size, which seems smaller than expected. Which of the following is the most likely cause and best solution?

Refer to the exhibit. [ 0.000000] Linux version 5.10.0-8-amd64 (debian@amd64) #1 SMP Debian 5.10.46-4 (2021-08-03) [ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/vg-root ro quiet [ 0.000000] Memory: 1024M/2048M available (8192K kernel code, 1024K rwdata, 2048K rodata, 512K init, 256K bss, 1024K reserved) [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/vg-root ro quiet [ 1.234567] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.43.0-ioctl (2021-02-07) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com [ 2.345678] EXT4-fs (dm-0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) [ 3.456789] systemd[1]: systemd 247 running in system mode. (+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ +LZ4 +ZSTD +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN2 +IDN -PCRE2 default-hierarchy=hybrid)

Module Size Used by usb_storage 24576 0 crct10dif_pclmul 16384 0 crc32_pclmul 16384 0 ghash_clmulni_intel 16384 0 aesni_intel 131072 0 x86_pkg_temp_thermal 16384 0 coretemp 16384 0 kvm_intel 102400 0 kvm 139264 1 kvm_intel

Refer to the exhibit. [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet [ 1.234567] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1) [ 1.234568] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.10.0-8-amd64 #1 [ 1.234569] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b_prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014