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Old 01-18-2020, 06:53 AM   #1
Double-D
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Booting problem with initramfs


Hello guys! I just installed Ubuntu Linux 16.04Lts Desktop and I've worked on it a couple of times or more. All of a sudden it couldn't boot to Windows anymore.

I used the manual fix 'fsck', still I get 'initramfs' error. What else can I do please?
 
Old 01-18-2020, 07:57 AM   #2
hazel
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You'll need to provide a lot more information than that for anyone to be able to help you.

You say you can't boot Windows, but initramfs is a Linux thing. It's the temporary ramdisk image that all modern distros use as their root partition before transferring to the real root partition on the hard drive. So my guess is that message came from Ubuntu. Are you able to boot Ubuntu or not? If not, where does it stop and what precisely is the error message? And what precisely is the error message when you try to boot Windows?

This is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received: error messages need to be taken down word for word to be useful. Then you can google them and if that doesn't help, you can post them here. But a summary like "initramfs error" doesn't help because it could represent loads of things.
 
Old 01-19-2020, 12:18 AM   #3
Double-D
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Absolutely...you are right to see I mentioned 'Ubuntu' Linux. M obviously talking of the difficulty trying to boot to "windows desktop" certainly because Ubuntu Desktop is 'graphical' by nature and you could also work with 'Terminal' just like the 'Server' version of it as you so desire. I do not mean "Windows OS"

My question is still pretty much right

Last edited by Double-D; 01-19-2020 at 12:31 AM. Reason: Not much details
 
Old 01-19-2020, 12:32 AM   #4
berndbausch
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Double-D View Post
Hello guys! I just installed Ubuntu Linux 16.04Lts Desktop and I've worked on it a couple of times or more. All of a sudden it couldn't boot to Windows anymore.

I used the manual fix 'fsck', still I get 'initramfs' error. What else can I do please?
fsck won't help you boot into Windows.

You could describe what exactly happens when you try to boot into Windows.
You could tell us what exactly the error message says. There are many possible initramfs errors.

Most likely, your PC uses UEFI to launch the operating system, and you use Grub as the bootloader. If so, you probably have to fix your Grub configuration, or whatever UEFI configuration/tool is responsible for launching Windows.

One method would be using your Windows installation DVD (or USB key) to repair the Windows boot. After that, all you will be able to do is boot into Windows. Next, from a Linux live DVD or USB key, fix the boot loader configuration so that you can boot Linux again.
 
Old 01-19-2020, 12:44 AM   #5
Double-D
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What exactly m trying to say is that Ubuntu is not booting, and I only get messages from "BusyBox". It's on google I got the suggested solution to us manual 'fsck' and it's not working...however,m trying to suspect if the problem could possibly be that my hard drive is having problem(bad sector or so) - m not sure if m right with this, because I've done a lot of work on 'Denver' and "Image Magic" before this mess came up.
 
Old 01-19-2020, 01:11 AM   #6
Double-D
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@berndbausch. Yeah, I think I appreciate your comments. I could see you really understand me well.

This is the message I got:
"
BusyBox v1.22.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.22.0-15ubuntu) built-in shell (ash)

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)

"

It doesn't go beyond here with just a blinking cursor waiting for a syntax/ command
 
Old 01-19-2020, 02:30 AM   #7
berndbausch
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Well, you must admit that you first stated the problem as "can't boot to Windows". Now it is "can't boot to Ubuntu".

There must be messages above the initramfs prompt, for example that the root filesystem can't be mounted. If you find anything that seems relevant, please share. Also, to understand what your root filesystem might be, can you share the output of these commands:
Code:
cat /proc/cmdline
lsblk -f
ls /sys/class/block
mount
(the mount command will likely dump out a lot of useless information, but possibly one line relevant to your problem)
With that information, we may be able to repair your computer.
 
Old 01-19-2020, 03:14 AM   #8
hazel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by berndbausch View Post
Well, you must admit that you first stated the problem as "can't boot to Windows". Now it is "can't boot to Ubuntu".
If you look again at post 3, there's an explanation there. The OP was using "Windows" as a synonym for "graphical desktop". It's definitely Ubuntu that won't boot.

@Double-D: BusyBox is part of the initramfs image. It gives you access to a command line (shell) and a set of simple tools for fixing problems but you're not ready to use them yet. You need to study the lines above the final prompt as they might explain why you have been dropped into this shell.
 
  


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