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The problem: Unable to boot into Ubuntu.

Causes:

  • Compilation of a package, (NekoProjectII/W) which had errors and in turn made the system unbootable, the error code was sbin/init not found

  • Tried to fix using a live boot usb, here I made a BIG mistake, as i proceeded to:

    • Copy the whole of /lib, /usr and /lib64 from the usb to the installation.
    • Copy the whole of /lib, from the usb to the installation OVERWRITING FILES (As far as I can remember)
    • Accidentally DELETED Important files, such as ALL of /lib/modules (Maybe a few more, doubt though)

  • I tried re-installing what I deleted, but to no avail, as installations failed because of the missing modules (This makes me feel like how I felt when I deleted the library that is required by apt, that can only be installed with apt)

  • After this, booting into ubuntu made it think that the installation was in the USB live drive, as far as i can tell, causing it to show UUID Does not exist, dropping to shell and dropping into BusyBox terminal (Which I am completely unfamiliar with)

  • Shortly after, grub became slow, (Updating screen), I doubt this means anything but when I went into advanced options for Ubuntu I saw that there was NO kernel 5.4.0-60, aka the version I use

What I Can't Do:

  • Use APT
  • Use DPKG
  • Use update-initramfs or update-initramfs.distrib
    • I Believe all these errors have to do with missing modules, as it explicitly mentions that.

Before anything else, if you are wondering why I'm chrooting, it's because I can actually get into the system, without it kicking me or panicking and halting.

Here's the error that came out when trying to re-install the modules:

root@ubuntu:/# sudo apt install --reinstall linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 14 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
E: Internal Error, No file name for linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic:amd64
root@ubuntu:/# sudo apt install linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic is already the newest version (5.4.0-60.67).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 14 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
E: Can not write log (Is /dev/pts mounted?) - posix_openpt (19: No such device)
Setting up linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic (5.4.0-60.67) ...
depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic: No such f
ile or directory
depmod: FATAL: could not search modules: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic (--configure):
 installed linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic package post-installation script subproc
ess returned error exit status 1
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.136ubuntu6.3) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.136ubuntu6.3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-60-generic
cat: /proc/cmdline: No such file or directory
W: missing /lib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic
W: Ensure all necessary drivers are built into the linux image!
depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic: No such f
ile or directory
depmod: FATAL: could not search modules: No such file or directory
cat: /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_UvIVHU/lib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic/modules.builtin: N
o such file or directory
find: ‘/var/tmp/mkinitramfs_UvIVHU/lib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic/kernel’: No such
 file or directory
grep: /proc/cpuinfo: No such file or directory
W: Couldn't identify type of root file system for fsck hook
depmod: WARNING: could not open modules.order at /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_UvIVHU/lib
/modules/5.4.0-60-generic: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open modules.builtin at /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_UvIVHU/l
ib/modules/5.4.0-60-generic: No such file or directory
/usr/sbin/update-initramfs: 185: cannot create /var/lib/initramfs-tools/5.4.0-60
-generic: Directory nonexistent
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned 
error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-5.4.0-60-generic
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Note that I'm using chroot onto a mounted partition (/mnt = nvme0n1p4 aka where my Ubuntu installation is) The error is pretty long, I know, but what I don't know is what else to do (I would like to not reinstall the system, unless I can somehow use chroot to run APTIK, a backup program).

Basically, fixing something equals fix something else, rinse and repeat until I'm absolutely lost.

Any help is appreciated, I'm gonna go relax for some minutes...

CattoByte
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1 Answers1

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This problem was fixed by reinstalling the system.

I found out you can select an option on a live USB called Reinstall Ubuntu XX.XX, which re-installs the operating system without deleting any data (except thigns like lib, usr, but not home).

As I'm writing this, the installation is around 70% complete.

The problem with what I did to the computer reminds me of when I accidentally deleted a library, not any library though, a library that APT depended on, which could ONLY be installed with apt.

I recommend backing your data up just in case re-installing does something, I've had massive success with the paid version of APTIK, a good backup manager that did everything perfectly except preserver folder icons (personal ones I put). This isn't sponsored, I just thought some people would like to know about it, as it has to do with this subject.

All I have to say is, be careful with the terminal, even compiling code can mess you up.

CattoByte
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