Arch Linux

BarefootSoul83

Member

From: Virginia, USA

Registered: 2009-10-07

Posts: 110

Website

cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

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

[ramfs /]#

---------------------I got this booting after I stupidly ran fsck while mounted.....
I booted into ArchLive and "fixed" it...but I still get the same error as seen above... any suggestions? Thx

Last edited by BarefootSoul83 (2010-03-15 17:09:10)

perbh

Member

From: Republic of Texas

Registered: 2005-03-04

Posts: 765

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

So - and how did you 'fix' it?

Surgat_

Member

Registered: 2007-08-08

Posts: 317

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

$  LANG=C pacman -Qo /sbin/init 
/sbin/init is owned by sysvinit 2.86-5

So, boot the livecd and reinstall sysvinit package

Meirion

Member

Registered: 2009-10-04

Posts: 26

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

I hit the same issue - might have been caused by the grub2 patch and fix earlier. /sbin/init is there. I think the grub2.cfg file is incorrect after the fixes, especially for an lvm2 based setup and you need to fix the root= entries in the file.

MeCe

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 6

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

I have the same issue, but it's comming rather arbitrary.
Sometimes I can boot, sometimes not and that error message shows up.

"$  LANG=C pacman -Qo /sbin/init "
shows me: "/sbin/init is owned by sysvinit 2.86-5"

So the suggenstion was to reinstall sysinit from live-cd.. is that still the case
if my error comes arbitrary?

And can u explain how I just install the sysinit package with the net-install cd containing the live-cd?

BTW I am using Grub, not Grub2

Last edited by MeCe (2010-07-08 08:30:30)

MeCe

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 6

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

*bump*

no answers yet

At least i found out how to reinstall sysvinit via chroot.
But that didn't solve the problem. The error is still occuring arbitrarily.

Here is an excerpt of my grub (1) menu.lst:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

and fstab:

# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
devpts                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
shm                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid        0      0

/dev/sda1 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

so my arch is running on sda1 which i formated with ext4.
However when I try to boot and it fails, i can catch a line saying something about "..filesystem is ext2fs..".
So I tried to edit my fstab sda1 to ext2. But that makes no differences.

Please tell me where is the problem!

schen

Member

Registered: 2009-06-06

Posts: 468

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

@MeCe

This isn't your thread. Create a new thread.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … _Hijacking

MeCe

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 6

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

actually its not hijacking.... its the same error message...
but if u think so i create a new thread, maybe then someone is willing to help!

MeCe

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 6

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

Hey,

I get this error while booting - sometimes:

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

[ramfs /]#

as described also here:  https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 11#p807311

I tried to reinstall sysvinit as described in this thread. - no success.

I found some entries in google saying one should check fstab and menu.lst. I did but
haven't found any problems. Maybe u see some?

Here is an excerpt of my grub (1) menu.lst:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

and fstab:

# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
devpts                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
shm                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid        0      0

/dev/sda1 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

so my arch is running on sda1 which i formated with ext4.
However when I try to boot and it fails, i can catch a line saying something about "..filesystem is ext2fs..".
So I tried to edit my fstab sda1 to ext2. But that makes no differences.

I am using Grub, not Grub2 btw.

Do u have any idea?

Thx,
MeCe

Last edited by MeCe (2010-08-11 14:09:53)

falconindy

Developer

From: New York, USA

Registered: 2009-10-22

Posts: 4,111

Website

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

Try specifying the root in menu.lst by UUID, not by device filename. e.g.:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3355ca72-95e3-b845-376becc94e1f ro vga=773

Last edited by falconindy (2010-08-11 16:24:58)

---

blog | ±github

perbh

Member

From: Republic of Texas

Registered: 2005-03-04

Posts: 765

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

Well now - grub _does not_ recognize ext4.
The 'usual' work-around is to have a seperate /boot-partition (which you dont seem to have) using ext2 or ext3.

aetherfly

Member

From: The SWAMP

Registered: 2010-08-01

Posts: 14

Website

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

Actually, grub will recognize ext4. I did an install with all ext4 partitions, including grub, at one point, and it would only fail to load grub maybe 1 in 100 boots. I did have /boot as its own partition though.

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

If you are using the grub from and Arch live cd, then it should recognize ext4 as it has been patched since a long time.

---

Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

Lets just keep the discussion in the same thread since its about the same issue.

---

Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

MeCe

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 6

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

Thanks very much for answering

Try specifying the root in menu.lst by UUID, not by device filename. e.g.:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3355ca72-95e3-b845-376becc94e1f ro vga=773

i did that. Got the right uuid via "ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid" for sda1 and changed the line in grub's menu.lst accordingly.
When I boot grub says it cant find that index, whysoever. I double checked for typos - but there are none.

If you are using the grub from and Arch live cd, then it should recognize ext4 as it has been patched since a long time.

I used arch linux net install cd and got all packages up-to-date. my arch install is around 2 month old. since then i am regularily running pacman -Su.

What about Grub2? Might it work better or same issue?

MeCe

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 6

Re: cant boot... ERROR: /sbin/init does not exist

I solved it myself by changing to Grub2

Here the link to the documentation http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRU … stallation