Alternately, you can add a kernel parameter to your boot loader:

panic=5

This has the advantage of rebooting after a panic even if the panic happens before there is a chance for the system to interpret /etc/sysctl.conf (such as an attempted boot with a bad initrd)

This is derived from http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Kernel_Panic_Reboot I have not tested this yet myself, but it was felt to be interesting enough to add here; if this works for you please remove this disclaimer

(An alternative - which will also catch hard locks, and some types of resource starvation - is to use the NSLU2's hardware watchdog e.g. see OpenSlug.Watchdog).

(An alternative (which will also catch hard locks) is to use the NSLU2's hardware watchdog e.g. see OpenSlug.Watchdog).

This page only explains how to automatically reboot on a panic. If you want to automatically reboot after a power failure you'll need to make a hardware modification. See ForcePowerAlwaysOn

Automatically Reboot on Panic

This is derived from http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Kernel_Panic_Reboot; I have not tested this yet myself, but it was felt to be interesting enough to add here; if this works for you please remove this disclaimer

Checking if automatic reboot is enabled

To check if Automatic Reboot is enabled try this:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/panic

The returned value is the time the kernel will wait before it reboots. If it is 0 or lower, it won't reboot by itself. Default the value is 0.

Enabling kernel panic reboot

To set the kernel to reboot do this command (as root):

echo "5" > /proc/sys/kernel/panic

Where 5 is replaced with the number of seconds to wait till reboot after a kernel panic.

To check the time was set right do this:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/panic

and the value 5 (or whatever value you picked) should be returned.

Making it permanent

To make it more permanent do this (again as root):

echo "kernel.panic=5" >> /etc/sysctl.conf

Adding the following to your kernel parameters in your bootloaders configuration might also help:

panic=5

NOTE: Substitute 5 with the number of seconds to wait till reboot after a kernel panic.