cannot boot ubuntu
 

All of sudden my ubuntu 10.0.4 has stopped booting. As i switch on the pc it gives the following error.

Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init.
run-init: /etc/init:Permission denied
[1.636730] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

thnx

I don't know why it is happening, but I can tell you what is happening: When you boot your system, your computer passes control over to your bootloader (usually GRUB). Your bootloader loads the kernel from out of your /boot directory and also a temporary filesystem called an initramfs or initrd (also located in /boot). This initramfs gets a few more system things ready, and then passes off control to the real operating system (Ubuntu) by starting a script at /sbin/init. If /sbin/init doesn't exist (or some other problem occurs in the initramfs) then the kernel will just die ("panic") because there is nothing else for it to do.

So, some possibilities of what might have gone wrong:

* The hard drive (or hard drive partition) that contains your /sbin/init crashed or its data was corrupted (recent power outage? old hard drive...?)

* The latest initramfs/initrd you got (say from a software update) is corrupted somehow or not configured correctly. When you boot, and the bootloader appears, is there a different kernel version available for you to try instead of the default one?

* At some point you accidentally deleted your /sbin/init. Unlikely, but dumber things have happened.

it shows only what i had already written. Nothing else.

thnx

Do you have an Ubuntu live CD? Boot up into that, and see if you are able to access your system drive. (Especially see if your /sbin/init file is still there).

i have installed ubuntu 10.0.4 but i have the cd. however i have fedora core 6

i have ubuntu 10.0.4 dump as a folder in a cd.

thnx

I do not understand what "i have ubuntu 10.0.4 dump as a folder in a cd" means. Are you a native English speaker?

You need a CD that allows you to boot into a live Linux system; that is, without actually installing it. Once you are back in Linux, you need to try to access the hard drive and see if the files on it are okay. It is possible to do this either using the graphical file manager, or by mounting the drive from a shell.