Arch Linux

lboregard

Member

Registered: 2014-05-19

Posts: 23

server wont boot:sh can t access tty job control turned off /sbin/init

got this error after a power spike (already put the server behind a ups)

i know i will need to boot with a live usb

the question is, will i be able to recover the boot partition, home partitions ?

lboregard

Member

Registered: 2014-05-19

Posts: 23

Re: server wont boot:sh can t access tty job control turned off /sbin/init

i managed to run bash from the grub meny entry, found out that systemd is running in emergency mode, tried to mount /boot, told me it couldnt because vfat isnt supported, even though mkinitcpio.conf explicitly lists vfat and fat as MODULES (confirmed by lsinitcpio)

for some reason it just can't load/find the boot partition, but i can certainly see it when chrooted from the live install

going to stop for now, if anyone has some other idea, can you pls share ?

otherwise i will go nuclear and reinstall from scratch, which is somewhat painful, i do have an offsite backup to retrieve last backup (a week ago)

thanks in advance

Last edited by lboregard (2025-06-14 00:50:39)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,275

Re: server wont boot:sh can t access tty job control turned off /sbin/init

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SMART

sudo LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk |& grep -v ', 0 altered files' | grep -v backup # from the chroot

In doubt make sure to have the boot partition mounted and re-install the kernel (this will also trigger an initramfs regeneration)

But you don't want to write to a disk that might have taken a hit (so check smartctl first, in doubt post the output- the  "overall result: healthy" or whatever line there is borderline meaningless.

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lboregard

Member

Registered: 2014-05-19

Posts: 23

Re: server wont boot:sh can t access tty job control turned off /sbin/init

thx for the reply, i ended up reinstalling from scratch

i was already in the process of building another server, currently waiting for parts to arrive, so im just biding my time with this one, hoping a lasts a bit more

what i learned, tho, was to put /home in a separate partition: i mean, i was able to recover from backup, but it was 1 week old (i backup on weekends)

maybe i could have pulled out that data from the very alive disk, but had spent too much time on this, just pulled the trigger

hopefully next time and on the new server, im better prepared