[solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

ivanborodin · 2014-05-21 06:02:37

While learning I got confused and did it ... my fault.

I understand that the systemd update (from 2013) merged all binaries into a unified /usr/bin directory as following:

• sbin → symbolic link to /usr/bin
• bin → symbolic link to /usr/bin
• lib → symbolic link to /usr/lib

My confusion make me delete this symlink (at least I didn't delete the 3 of them) thinking they were not needed anymore.

I also (now) understand that these symlinks are (now) provided by the systemd-sysvcompat package; am I right ?

Upon reboot I am now encountring the "Root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init does not exist." and since I didn't messed around with the boot configuration and anything related can I manually re-create this sbin symlink ?

Last edited by ivanborodin (2014-05-21 08:01:49)

chaonaut · 2014-05-21 06:06:05

ivanborodin wrote:

Upon reboot I am now encountring the "Root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init does not exist."

you can boot with an additional kernel parameter init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd and then recreate missing symlink manually.

Last edited by chaonaut (2014-05-21 06:07:43)

ivanborodin · 2014-05-21 06:22:56

thanks for your reply !

I added the init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd parameter the the linux line on the GRUB2 screen and booted with F10 afterwards.

Partial luck.

It seems the system is now booting because I briefly see the boot screen but I get a black screen with a blinking cursor in less than one second and there it stays.

If I hit CTRL+ALT+DEL the system (seems) to reboot normally because the screen starts to show the shutdown sequence.

Question: is it possible that the boot configuration (or something else) permanently changed by my fault deleting the sbin symlink ?

headkase · 2014-05-21 06:35:37

Why don't you boot off your Arch installation CD, arch-chroot into your installation, and either recreate the symlink OR reinstall the filesystem package, and finally reboot back into your installation?

Edit:

$ pacman -Qo /sbin
/sbin is owned by filesystem 2013.05-2

Last edited by headkase (2014-05-21 06:38:13)

ivanborodin · 2014-05-21 07:51:54

for anyone else with similar problems here is the solution as pointed by headkase; I booted with my live CD and at the command prompt:

1. mounted my existing partititions in order to arch-chroot thereafter:

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot

2: arch-chroot ... to get into my installation

3. pacman --sync filesystem

4. rebooted ... everything working as expected: all symlinks were re-created.

thank you very much headkase and chaonaut; I promise to be more careful

Last edited by ivanborodin (2014-05-21 07:55:31)

jasonwryan · 2014-05-21 07:56:02

Please remember to mark your thread as [Solved] by editing your first post and prepending it to the title.

headkase · 2014-05-21 08:27:37

You're welcome, breaking Arch is the best way to learn how to fix it.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-05-21 06:02:37

[solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

#2 2014-05-21 06:06:05

Re: [solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

#3 2014-05-21 06:22:56

Re: [solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

#4 2014-05-21 06:35:37

Re: [solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

#5 2014-05-21 07:51:54

Re: [solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

#6 2014-05-21 07:56:02

Re: [solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

#7 2014-05-21 08:27:37

Re: [solved] I deleted sbin symlink and rebooted: can it be re-created ?

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