What does "not syncing" mean in kernel panic?
What is meant by "not syncing" in a kernel panic message?
I have read that it means that the kernel successfully synced data to disk, but am not sure.
A typical context would be: "Kernel panic - not syncing - Attempted to kill init!"
Answer
not syncing means that the device buffers have not been flushed to the actual devices. We do this to prevent damage to the data.
If we synced on kernel panic, we could cause a lot of trouble to the user. This is because the kernel panic could have happened anywhere and it might cause side-effects to other modules and parts of the kernel.