Kernel 2.6.17-7-generic fails to boot, I get the BusyBox instead

Does booting to 2.6.17-6-686 kernel work fine?

Yes I can boot kernel 2.6.17-6-686 just fine without problems. The only problematic kernel is with 2.6.17-7-generic.

I tested single user mode and it still fails with kernel 2.6.17-7-generic (single-user mode)

However it also gave me some additional information, see below.

Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom...
Done.
Done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom...
mount: Mounting /root/dev on /dev/.static/dev failed: no such file or directory
Done.
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 /sbin/init

I can only get my 2.6.17-7 kernel to boot (same symptoms and 2.6.17-6 boots fine) by changing /dev/sda1 to /dev/hda1 in the kernel parameters.

I have 3 (older) machines that exhibit the same behaviour. A fourth (more recent) machine boots fine, but it has a SATA disk.

I have also the error : /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
no more verbose than that.

The difference is that I get this error also in 2.6.17-7-generic and also in 2.6.17-6-686 which was previously booting Ok.

Did you do the new feature on apt-get that removes unnecessary packages? If so, it seems it might have removed upstart.. this was another bug recently posted.

Make sure you have upstart package on your system to init the new kernels. You can use a livecd and chroot your filesystem if you are not able to currently do anything.

I opened Synaptic and entered as a search term upstart and got back 3 responses.

upstart 0.2.5-1
upstart-compat-sysv 0.2.5-1
These 2 are installed.

However I also saw that this package was not installed.
upstart-logd 0.2.5-1

I have upstart installed.

in kernel 2.6.17-7 I get also these 2 errors lines :
[17179620.024000] hda: timeout waiting for DMA
[17179620.024000] hda: drive not read for command

and then (also in 2.6.17-6) :
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
#

When I chrooted to the file-system from dapper-livecd, the fs became read-only every-time I tried to do dpkg --configure -a or apt-get -f install.
something went very wrong with my file-system...

Hi, I fixed the problem with dpkg, and did full dist-upgrade today.
But the boot has not changed. I get error messages, sometimes the 2 errors about DMA, and I get a read-only filesystem.

I experienced this same problem after an apt-get dist-upgrade to move from Dapper to Edgy on my laptop. Examining the boot messages showed that the wrong partitions were being mounted (or at least attempted). I was able to boot to a liveCD and edit the menu.lst to solve the problem, menu.lst had the wrong UUID listed. After resolving that issue I am able to boot to my laptop without problem.

My laptop's partitioning scheme is a bit complicated for reasons I won't go into, so that may have confused the upgrade engine. I have /dev/hda6 as my /home/ partition and /dev/hda7 as the / partition. I would guess that perhaps the upgrade program looked for the first available Linux partition and assumed that was the right one to boot. In this case that was not the right answer. If that's not the case I have no idea why it decided to boot to hda6 rather than 7.

>Re: Kernel 2.6.17-7-generic fails to boot, I get the BusyBox instead from B. Grantham at 2006-09-12 16:42:56 UTC
>
>Did you do the new feature on apt-get that removes unnecessary packages? If so, it seems it might have removed upstart.. this was another >bug recently posted.
>
>Make sure you have upstart package on your system to init the new kernels. You can use a livecd and chroot your filesystem if you are not able >to currently do anything.

I have the same problem, and i remember runnning apt-get autoremove and i think it removed upstart among others. Can you elaborate on this issue please, how to fix it and reinstall that package? And where is this bug report you refer to.

Thank you

The same happens to me on a 2.6.20-2 and -3 generic.

Has anyone any idea how to fix this problem?

(iam getting the same output like above,
amd64 3000+ on 32 bit, feisty, 1024mb ram)

> Can you elaborate on this issue please, how to fix it and reinstall that package?

I think he meant like that:
Boot from a live CD.
Open a terminal.
If you don't know, use sudo fdisk -l to check out what partitions you have and on which one your system is installed.
Create a directory, e.g. sudo mkdir /media/hda1 (name doesn't matter).
Mount the partition with your system into the directory with sudo mount /dev/hda1 /media/hda1 (or the appropriate partition for your system)
Chroot there with chroot /media/hda1
Reinstall upstart or whatever your system is missing to boot (kernel? ubuntu-minimal?) with sudo apt-get install upstart

>> Did you do the new feature on apt-get that removes unnecessary packages? If so, it seems it might have removed upstart.. this was another bug recently posted.
Make sure you have upstart package on your system to init the new kernels. You can use a livecd and chroot your filesystem if you are not able to currently do anything. <<

I can confirm this. I had the same error and my menu.lst was set up fine. It was caused by an apt-get autoremove. Mounting a Ubuntu-livcd, doing chroot, and doing an apt-get install ubuntu-minimal solved the problem (apt-get install upstart was not enough!)

I'm experiencing the same bug with Feisty! I was weekly dist-upgrading my system from edgy to feisty and the kernel 2.6.17-11-generic didn't work anymore (the latest 2.6.20 kernels don't either!). However, 2.6.17-10-generic works fine.

I'm using Athlon XP 2600 and ReiserFS. Tried both, Lilo and Grub and the symptoms are the same. Partition settings are ok as far as I can tell (root partition set correctly, initrd found). Maybe this is reiserfs problem because edgy works fine on ext3 on 2.6.17-11-generic on the other partition.

Sorry, looks like it magically works out of the box. Kernel 2.6.20-13-generic. No tty control turned off problems anymore.

I am assigning this bug to the 'ubuntu-kernel-team' per their bug policy. For future reference you can learn more about their bug policy at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies .

The 18 month support period for Edgy Eft 6.10 has reached it's end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.17 Edgy Eft kernel task.

Hardy Heron 8.04 was recently released. It would be helpful if you could test the new release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . You should be able to test your bug using the LiveCD. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

Unfortunately this bug report is being closed because we received no response to the last inquiry for information. However, the Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Beta release was most recently announced - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/beta . If you are able to confirm this is still an issue with this most recent release please feel free to reopen this report. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New".

Thanks,

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.