Arch Linux

jshapiro

Member

Registered: 2010-12-19

Posts: 5

[Solved] /sbin/init does not exist

I'm installing Arch for the first time in about 2 years and I must say the team has really streamlined the install process.

I have a working system when I chroot in from the live CD, however when I go to boot into the system I get the error:

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

[rootfs /]#

It says that /dev/sda1 (my root partition) has been mounted successfully but when I look to navigate the filesystem I can see that it's not the same as when I chroot in. For example, it's missing a /boot directory and the /bin and /sbin folders are identical (and wrong.)

The problem isn't with syslinux or grub as I've tried both, nor is it with the root filesystem as I'm using ext3 now. I've tried the solution found here to add "init=/bin/systemd" to the kernel line in the bootloader but it just changes the error to "/bin/systemd does not exist" and gives the exact same problem. /sbin/init and /bin/systemd both exist in the root filesystem.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Last edited by jshapiro (2013-04-14 02:41:07)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,556

Website

Re: [Solved] /sbin/init does not exist

it sounds like it is *not* in fact mounting the correct root partition.  The /bin/ and /sbin/ folders you are left with are then the contents of the initramfs.

It successfully mounts a partition - but it must be the wrong one.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

cfr

Member

From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,139

Re: [Solved] /sbin/init does not exist

What does ls -l /sbin/init /bin/systemd give?

Post fstab.

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opt1mus

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2011-12-31

Posts: 212

Website

Re: [Solved] /sbin/init does not exist

On installing say, syslinux; did you run syslinux-install_update -i -a -m (whilst chrooted in), and also check /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg to make sure that it's pointing to the correct root partition? i.e.;

APPEND root=/dev/sda1 ro

jshapiro

Member

Registered: 2010-12-19

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] /sbin/init does not exist

Eureka! I had been trying to fix this problem for like 3 hours before I posted, and of course I figure it out 15 minutes after I post here

Anyway, my problem was that you need shutdown and usr hooks in mkinitcpio.conf if you have a separate /usr partition. Funny enough, I found the solution by reading the link I posted which was actually the wrong link and was a thread I hadn't seen when searching before.

Thanks for the help anyway 

EDIT: typos

Last edited by jshapiro (2013-04-14 02:41:55)