[SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

yunfei · 2012-02-26 00:58:54

I have faced a booting problem just after upgrading my system last night.
The first time I reboot it halts with such messages:
Booting the kernel.
[0.017252] ACPI:Unable to load the System Desciption Tables
[0.211206] Initramfs unpacking failed: uncompresion error
[0.816567] Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init- option to kernel.
... ...
then I reboot and add "acpi=off" to the kernel line. In this time, it turns to:
Booting the kernel.
[0.243467] Initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error
[0.849642] Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init- option to kernel.
[0.849693] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.2.7-1-ARCH #1
... ...

Can anyone give me some help about this problem? Thanks~~

Last edited by yunfei (2012-03-03 14:27:25)

swanson · 2012-02-26 04:10:23

Try to rebuild the initramfs with; mkinitcpio -p linux
More about this here; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio

yunfei · 2012-02-26 06:00:46

swanson wrote:

Try to rebuild the initramfs with; mkinitcpio -p linux
More about this here; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio

I have tried the fallback initramfs but failed also (if adding "acpi=off" the ACPI failed line disappear with other things unchanged), so I don't think it's something about the initramfs.

jasonwryan · 2012-02-26 06:22:17

yunfei wrote:

[0.211206] Initramfs unpacking failed: uncompresion error
... so I don't think it's something about the initramfs.

Probably not.

Chroot in, do a full update, reinstall udev and rebuild the image just to make sure.

swanson · 2012-02-26 06:29:34

Maybe check pacman.log for messages or errors?

Blµb · 2012-02-28 17:23:55

I only ever saw that on a non-broken system when I was trying to boot from a CDRom and the kernel didn't have a driver supporting that.
That was an old ubuntu CD. Funny thing is that the new ubuntu CD kernel-panicked ... (turned out I had to add nointremap to the kernel command line...)

Where is your initramfs located? A normal HDD, a RAID, are you trying to boot from a CD or USB stick?
Also: A while ago I think the initramfs was renamed, it's now /boot/initramfs-linux
(I think it used to be kernel26.img?)
So also check your bootloader config (grub?)

yunfei · 2012-02-29 02:02:47

My ARCH is installed on a SATA HDD with LVM, and it works before. Maybe something unexpectly happen when I do this fully update. I prepare to boot from CD and then chroot in to check the boot files and pacman logs, but I have no time to deal with it until Sunday. Thanks!

yunfei · 2012-03-03 14:32:59

I chroot in and regenerate the initimage, then the boot problem was sloved. I don't know why it happened, but in the pacman.log it shows that the pacman generates the initimage before upgrading the kernel. It maybe the reason for this problem. Anyway, it was solved.

redguardtoo · 2012-03-05 12:02:32

I met the same problem on my netbook and pc. I boot with live disk,chroot reinstall package 'linux' and 'udev', and reboot, did not work.

I tried again, chroot and then 'mkinitcpio -p linux', problem fixed!

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-26 00:58:54

[SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#2 2012-02-26 04:10:23

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#3 2012-02-26 06:00:46

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#4 2012-02-26 06:22:17

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#5 2012-02-26 06:29:34

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#6 2012-02-28 17:23:55

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#7 2012-02-29 02:02:47

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#8 2012-03-03 14:32:59

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

#9 2012-03-05 12:02:32

Re: [SOLVED]initramfs unpacking failed: uncompression error

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