Reboot Linux box after a kernel panic

by Vivek Gite · 3 comments

If you want the server to get rebooted automatically after kernel hit by a pain error message, try adding panic=N to /etc/sysctl.conf file.

It specify kernel behavior on panic. By default, the kernel will not reboot after a panic, but this option will cause a kernel reboot after N seconds. For example following boot parameter will force to reboot Linux after 10 seconds.

Open /etc/sysctl.conf file

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf

When kernel panic's, reboot after 10 second delay

kernel.panic = 10

Save and close the file. Alternatively, you may want to enable and use magic system request keys (SysRq).

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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Anonymous 11.16.07 at 3:47 pm

Thanks for this tip. My computer had a kernel panic for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I had no choice but to reboot it manually.

2 mangoo 11.21.07 at 6:36 pm

One can also add panic=10 to the kernel command line, it will have exactly the same effect.

Of course, it’s possible to change it later with sysctl, or by writing to /proc:

echo 10 > /proc/sys/kernel/panic

3 Rene 09.23.09 at 8:38 am

Thanks for this tip! As indicated by mangoo: To take this change effect right now, issue the command
sysctl -p to re-read the /etc/sysctl.conf
Otherwise, this change is not active before the next reboot.

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