initramfs

[eegrek39]

I have the dreaded initramfs prompt after booting up Linux mint 19.1. I have tried fsck -y /dev/sda1 with little success. I get the boot options and it tries to reboot but after the LM logo with the 5 dots underneath it still returns to (initramfs). Is there an easy solution or do I need to reinstall linux mint 19 using the boot usb I have made. This will empty my folders that I have unless you can tell me how to reinstall without changing the folders. My backups are unfortunately not up to date being a week or so old. Many thanks for any help you can give me.

[WharfRat]

Boot up the live installation session and paste back sudo blkid

[eegrek39]

sorry warfrat I am a bit of an idiot - how do I get to a terminal window as I cannot get into linux mint. Do you mean I should use my installation usb to get into linux mint and then use the terminal from there.

[WharfRat]

Do you mean I should use my installation usb to get into linux mint and then use the terminal from there.

Yes

[eegrek39]

mint@mint:~$ sudo suthanks
root@mint:/home/mint# sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="6d827b7c-93ef-450c-9dcc-c663294c603d" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="c6bf3404-01"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="2018-06-26-16-24-01-00" LABEL="Linux Mint 19 MATE 64-bit" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="7ffce341" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="7ffce341-01"
/dev/sdb2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="044E-AC17" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="7ffce341-02"
root@mint:/home/mint#

HOPE THIS IS WHAT YOU REQUIRE - many thanks

[eegrek39]

Oh the problem with this is that my installation on usb is 19.0 and not 19.1 which was updated from the previous version.

[WharfRat]

Oh the problem with this is that my installation on usb is 19.0 and not 19.1 which was updated from the previous version.

That's OK.

Make sure /dev/sda1 wasn't auto-mounted and run sudo e2fsck -fvC0y /dev/sda1 then try rebooting

[eegrek39]

this is what I get after runining fsck etc
root@mint:/home/mint# sudo e2fsck -fvC0y /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
e2fsck: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/sda1
Could this be a zero-length partition?

[WharfRat]

That's not good. I just recently got a message similar to that and the device was toast.

Try running sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda1 |grep superblock

You'll get a list like:

Code: Select all

[bill@home] ~ $ sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sda1 |grep superblock
dumpe2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
  Primary superblock at 0, Group descriptors at 1-5
  Backup superblock at 32768, Group descriptors at 32769-32773
  Backup superblock at 98304, Group descriptors at 98305-98309

So try the backups with sudo e2fsck -b 32768 -fvC0y /dev/sda1

If you still get messages then try the next etc.

[eegrek39]

root@mint:/home/mint# sudo e2fsck -b 32768 -fvC0y /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inode 18745411 passes checks, but checksum does not match inode. Fix<y>?

For the sudo dump etc instruction I cant seem to get the (down Line) before grep superblock. I normally use ALT GR and the Key showing the downline but this does not seem to work at the moment.

[eegrek39]

When you say the device was toast do you mean that my hard disc drive has failed in some way. If so this may be why I have had this problem twice before ( over a number of years ) I suddenly get the initramfs message and the only way I have overcome the problem was to reinstall Linux Mint as a fresh installation.

[WharfRat]

Yes, I'm leaning toward a disk failure.

Your previous problems could have been due to other reasons.

Usually when fsck complains like this it's serious.

Install smartmontools and run sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda to try to get an idea if there are a lot of errors showing.

[eegrek39]

I'll try the smart thingy in a minute. At the moment I have tried the boot in recovery mode and it is trying every input
eg sb3/3/3-3:1.0/0003:0458:003.0012/input/input23 ( the input23 is indexing up one at a time. I dont know how long I have to wait or how many inputs it has to try before finishing (its up to input 27) I really dont know if its worth waiting until it finishes or if I should abort and try your last suggestion.

[WharfRat]

You can try reinstalling again - it can't hurt.

It looks like the filesystem got corrupted beyond compare or the disk is on its way out.

I wouldn't store anything of importance on that system post re-installation until you straighten-out this situation.

Situations like this is where a comprehensive backup is absolutely necessary.

[mrmajik45]

Do you know how old the HDD/SSD is?

[eegrek39]

I think the computer is about 6 years old and I have been using Linux mint since it was new as windows was almost unusable from the start. It is a standard HDD at the moment but I might try an SSD instead assuming the rest of the machine would support such an upgrade. Many thanks for your advice this afternoon, I will erase the disc and reinstall all my folders and software which is an interesting experience as I use the machine for Python, PYQT4 Freecad etc.

[mrmajik45]

On average 3-5 years is how long a hdd will normally last.

[lsemmens]

On average 3-5 years is how long a hdd will normally last.

I call BS. All of my drives save the SSDs are well in excess of 10 years old. Even last century, when I was working for a living to old 20Mb drives (some of us are that old) would last way longer than that. The only time a drive should fail in that short a time is a manufacturing error or drive abuse (i.e. harsh environment, being dropped or constant work - read/write cycles in the order of seconds all day every day).

[kevin987]

On average 3-5 years is how long a hdd will normally last.

I call BS. All of my drives save the SSDs are well in excess of 10 years old. Even last century, when I was working for a living to old 20Mb drives (some of us are that old) would last way longer than that. The only time a drive should fail in that short a time is a manufacturing error or drive abuse (i.e. harsh environment, being dropped or constant work - read/write cycles in the order of seconds all day every day).

3-5 years is meant more for the business world. Somehow that statistic gets thrown about with personal pc's too, which is false. 10 years is quite common for home use.