ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

agent_p · 2014-11-20 01:11:50

Hi everyone. Bit of an Arch newbie here and I was hoping that somebody could help me with my most recent issue.

In mid use, (my laptop was fully functional previously) my laptop screen went black so I forced a reboot. When I rebooted, the output was the following:

ERROR: Root device mounted sucessfully, but /sbin/init does not exist
Bailing out, you are on your own. Good Luck.

sh can't access tty; job control turned off

The prompt was also different:

[rootfs /]#

I have tried to add 'init=/bin/systemd' and 'init=/lib/systemd/systemd' to my kernel line as was suggested in this thread and this thread respectively but the same error was still produced but with '/sbin/init' replaced by '/bin/systemd' and '/lib/systemd/systemd'.

I would really appreciate any advice or suggestions so thanks in advance.

Scimmia · 2014-11-20 03:57:32

Most likely you have the wrong partition mounted as root. Either that or you have a separate /usr partition that isn't being mounted.

agent_p · 2014-11-20 06:41:35

Thanks for the response. I the issue is what you think it is, how can I go about fixing it? Also how can I check that this is the case?

Scimmia · 2014-11-20 06:52:16

You check your bootloader settings and see what partition it's passing to the kernel as root. If it's wrong, you fix it.

TheSaint · 2014-11-20 06:56:16

You're not detailed.
Which partition scheme have you done?
How's you /etc/fstab?
Which boot loader and configuration do you have ?
MBR or UEFI booting?

agent_p · 2014-11-20 07:04:56

My partition scheme is 30GB / on sda1 and a ~80GB /home on sda2.
/etc/fstab seems to be empty so I guess that is the problem, although I wouldn't have a clue as to how that happened.
My bootloader is Grub 2.02~beta2.
MBR.
Also I am running this on a chromebook which may be something to consider.

TheSaint · 2014-11-20 07:42:23

Is it a fresh installation ?
Repeat reading the Beginner's Guide
And see for genfstab and for grub

agent_p · 2014-11-20 07:51:20

No, this is not a fresh installation. In fact it has been fully functional for several months and this just randomly happened in the middle of me using it as I described in the origonal post. Also the prompt provided has very limited commands available, even less than when I first installed. I do have a live cd that does work. Could that be of use?

Last edited by agent_p (2014-11-20 07:52:03)

jasonwryan · 2014-11-20 07:58:45

Chroot in and regenerate your fstab; check it carefully before exiting the chroot.

TheSaint · 2014-11-20 08:09:38

agent_p wrote:

I do have a live cd that does work. Could that be of use?

You need to use it and see the arch-chroot or the above paragraph.
Otherwise use a live distro with GUI and then inspect your /etc/fstab and copy here.
Something more, check also your boot loader configuration.
In case of doubts give us details by posting the link where you drop the file. Long files should go to some file hosting site

Last edited by TheSaint (2014-11-20 08:16:49)

agent_p · 2014-11-20 08:30:50

I am trying to use arch-chroot after mounting the root partition to /mnt but when I run the command:

arch-chroot /mnt

it gives the error:

chroot: failed to run command /bin/sh: no such file or directory

Upon further inspection /mnt/bin and /mnt/sbin are both symbolically linked to /mnt/usr/bin which does not exist. How can I fix this?

TheSaint · 2014-11-20 08:38:06

It seems you lost the partition.
Try to browse the partition and perhaps fsck -f it.
If it still serious problem you need to try testdisk, which will try to detect your partitions and reconstruct the partition table.

agent_p · 2014-11-20 08:44:26

Should this be done on a live cd?

TheSaint · 2014-11-20 09:25:34

Definitely you can't do it on mounted partitions. Therefore the answer is YES.

agent_p · 2014-11-20 22:03:43

Running

fsck -f /dev/sda1

outputs the following:

/dev/sda1: 203980/1966080 files (0.2% non-contagious), 2480712/7864320 blocks

Note that I had already run this command before posting here as it was suggested. I also restored the fstab using testdisk but I wouldn't have a clue as to how to recover the lost data.

TheSaint · 2014-11-20 22:18:57

Data loss should take a different step.
See this list

Arch Linux

#1 2014-11-20 01:11:50

ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#2 2014-11-20 03:57:32

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#3 2014-11-20 06:41:35

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#4 2014-11-20 06:52:16

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#5 2014-11-20 06:56:16

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#6 2014-11-20 07:04:56

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#7 2014-11-20 07:42:23

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#8 2014-11-20 07:51:20

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#9 2014-11-20 07:58:45

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#10 2014-11-20 08:09:38

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#11 2014-11-20 08:30:50

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#12 2014-11-20 08:38:06

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#13 2014-11-20 08:44:26

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#14 2014-11-20 09:25:34

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#15 2014-11-20 22:03:43

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

#16 2014-11-20 22:18:57

Re: ERROR: Root device mounted sucesfully, but /sbin/init does not exist

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