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I recently attempted to update to Ubuntu 14.04 from Ubuntu 12.04. Everything seemed to work without error until it restarted. When the computer fired back up, I was greeted with the following message in what was basically a full-screen terminal (which I copied by hand):

mount: mounting /dev/loop0 on /root failed: Invalid argument
mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory
Target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init.
No init found. Try passing init= bootarg.


BusyBox v1.21.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.21.0-1ubuntu1) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) _

The _ at the end is a prompt, and typing help as suggested gives me a list of some basic commands like ls and cd.

What's going on here? Is this recoverable, or should I scrap everything and do a fresh install? In case it matters, I installed Ubuntu about a year ago as a dual boot with Windows 7 via the wubi installer. I also just read that wubi is being discontinued as of 13.04, so perhaps this was part of the problem.

EDIT I've found a possible solution here, I'm going to give it a shot. In the meantime, other suggestions as backup if this doesn't work are welcome.

Community
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wlyles
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2 Answers2

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I am no expert, but if you used Wubi, I think your Ubuntu might have been running as a Windows program. Do you remember how you installed Ubuntu the first time? There are some simple commands to fix the Windows boot if you have a Windows recovery disk. Here is the Microsoft page that explains bootrec.

I have used it before and it worked quite well. If you get Windows running again, you might want to use system restore if you have a recently saved restore point. I don't know if you can upgrade an installation of Ubuntu that runs under Windows. I would remove Ubuntu from Windows using Windows' install/remove programs and then do a fresh dual boot installation or use the later version of Ubuntu to do a new side by side installation if you can save all your documents before you delete Ubuntu.

Zanna
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summertime
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I found a solution on another question that didn't want to show up as a possible duplicate when I was writing my question. Note that I cannot guarantee that this is a safe solution, but it should work if you've installed Ubuntu as a dual boot with Windows and have the same message as I had above when you try to boot. I've summarized the answer at the link here:

  • When you turn on your computer, select to boot Ubuntu, and hold down Shift to run Grub, the boot loader for Ubuntu.

  • Press E to display the commands that Grub uses to boot Ubuntu.

  • Look through these commands to find where it says ro quiet splash and change this to rw quiet splash.

  • Press the boot key (it says what you can use at the bottom of the screen; my options were F10 or Ctrl+X).

  • Now Ubuntu should boot properly, but the settings that we changed haven't stuck yet. You'll need to run sudo -H gedit /etc/default/grub (or you can use whatever text editor you prefer) to change the default boot settings.

  • Find the line which reads GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" and add rw to the parameter so that it's the same as what we used to boot.

  • Save the file and exit the editor.

  • Run sudo update-grub to generate a new grub config file.

Now, if you reboot Ubuntu, you should find that it works as expected.

Zanna
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wlyles
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