{ 16 Intelligent Comments }

Initramfs Prompt When Ubuntu Boots

Written on July 25th 2009 at 07:42

Ubuntu Linux LogoInitramfs Prompt Boot Problems

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

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.

Discussion


Wow, 16 Comments! We've got a conversation going now. Join the discussion below!

  1. Linnie says:
    May 4, 2010 at 16:13

    Thanks!!! That really helped :)

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    August 29, 2010 at 23:49

    Thanks that helped my disk is toast but I was still able to log on and clean up a bit before getting a new one.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says:
    November 19, 2010 at 05:28

    wat is supposed to happen after mounting?? I got the (initramfs) prompt again…i rebooted but again got stuck at (initramfs)_

    Reply
    1. Allan says:
      January 6, 2011 at 18:18

      Yeah what happens after?

      Reply
  4. Ruksana says:
    December 17, 2010 at 15:01

    This works. Being a newbie to Ubuntu and Windows partitioning, this really helps.

    THANKS.

    Reply
  5. Adnan says:
    February 18, 2011 at 02:51

    ThaNks man this helped me getting in the system, i need to fix it again.

    Reply
  6. Epsi says:
    March 2, 2011 at 12:04

    Hi there. I have the same issue after having passed DBAN to wipe hardrive. So I don’t have the alternative of going to Windows. There seems to be no partitions either. Any idea on what to do?

    Many thanks

    Reply
  7. Epsi says:
    March 2, 2011 at 12:06

    Ah, sorry, forgot to mention I am runnimg Ubuntu from CD and as I choose to install it the black screen comes in with the initramfs Prompt Boot issue featured above.

    Not much knowledge of Linux or computers either…

    Reply
    1. Rosco says:
      March 2, 2011 at 12:30

      Hi there Epsi…I haven’t heard of this happening during the install process…have you completely wiped the drive clean and started fresh?

      Here’s a link to Ubuntu Forums where they were having the same or similar issues. Give it a try.
      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?action=printpage;topic=3103120.0

      Hope this helps

      Rosco

      Reply
      1. Epsi says:
        March 2, 2011 at 14:29

        Hi there, thanks a lot for that. I read somewhere else that my iso copy of Ubuntu could be corrupted so I made a new copy downloaded from another computer and run it again on the problematic one from the cd unit. It worked!

        Reply
  8. Swapnil says:
    July 7, 2011 at 00:03

    Hey buddy. I tried the above repair but it was unsuccessful on my Laptop. It shows some commands over there and write at last that there are EVEN MORE commands… and finally, the problem did not got solved. :( is there any other method? I need it back badly!

    Reply
  9. Anonymous says:
    July 31, 2011 at 15:57

    I have Ubuntu 8.4 work fine but when i tried to install 10.4 or 11.4 it dosn’t work i have this problem (Initramfs) why

    Reply
  10. toyin says:
    October 26, 2011 at 00:49

    i tried to forcibly mount the NTFS volume this is the message it displayed “mounting /dev/sda1 on /root failed:success
    (initramfs) what do i do next?

    Reply
  11. mete says:
    October 29, 2011 at 12:31

    ubuntuyu winsowsun içine kurmayın bir başka partitiona kurun

    Reply
  12. Al W says:
    December 18, 2011 at 22:06

    Im unable to get beyondinitramfs.
    Conical, Ubuntu … Can someone please help. I presume this all happened after an upgrade to Ubuntu

    Please help. I’ve been down for quite some time- only have iPhone to check things out and even to write this plea.

    Reply
    1. Santanu says:
      December 24, 2011 at 12:09

      I get this frequently and I just press Crtl-Alt-Del to reboot. It runs fine second time. I am booting from a pen-drive.

      Reply

Leave a Reply