Ubuntu Booting To (initramfs) Prompt

Description

Ubuntu boots to a black screen with a (initramfs) prompt

Symptoms

• After selecting to boot into Ubuntu from your boot menu, the boot process halts at a black screen.
• You are presented with only a prompt (initramfs)
• You are presented with the BusyBox message
• You have installed Ubuntu on an NTFS partition dual booting with Microsoft Windows

Explanation

This can occur when you have installed Ubuntu on an NTFS Windows partition and Windows was incorrectly shutdown. Solutions Below….

Solutions

Step 1 – Run CHKDSK and Gracefully Shutdown Windows

1. Restart your computer into Windows
2. Open a CMD prompt and type:

   chkdsk c: /f

   Note: You may get a message that windows needs to schedule the chkdsk the next time the computer starts. Accept this frustrating reality and reboot.

3. After the chkdsk has successfully completed, shutdown windows gracefully using the Start > Shutdown method
4. When rebooting choose to go into Ubuntu from your startup menu. If you still land a the balck screen then co to Step 2 below.

Step 2 – Forcibly Mount The Ubuntu Volume

1. If you are only booting to a prompt and can’t get any further and following Solution 1 above did not resolve the issue then you will need to forcibly mount the NTFS volume. This can be dangerous but is the only other way out of this problem as far as I know. Feel free to comment below if you know otherwise.
2. At the (initranfs) prompt issue the following command:

   mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /root -o force

Note: The mount command may be different for you. To find out your exact command reboot, select Ubuntu and press Esc when you see the countdown. Choose to enter in recovery mode. You will be presented with the same prompt but there will be a whole lot of other lines of text. You should be able to spot your mount command in there.