[SOLVED] initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed

[smurphos]

but I still see a flash of illegible error message at the second point it displayed.

Run

Code: Select all

journalctl -b -p 0

immediately after booting up and logging in to see any messages the system deemed critical enough to flash up during the boot sequence.

[smurphos]

Interestingly I don't get this bug on my hardware with the new default lz4. No idea why not, I'd assumed it was universal given the number of people who'd noted it.

Interestingly I've only had the error on 2 boots out of 21 or so since this fresh install. All with the default lz4. Bizarre

Code: Select all

steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl -p 0
-- Logs begin at Sun 2020-07-12 08:35:16 BST, end at Sat 2020-07-18 06:17:01 BST. --
Jul 12 08:35:16 steve-Inspiron-5580 kernel: Initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed
-- Reboot --
Jul 17 12:29:40 steve-Inspiron-5580 kernel: Initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed
steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl --list-boots
-21 1544346f9a19472db4766aedce341b4c Sun 2020-07-12 08:35:16 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 08:43:02 BST
-20 f76813325d624ff783d65c31e9e73c6c Sun 2020-07-12 08:43:23 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 09:10:21 BST
-19 31f0c1007b0b4a6d8382e906b1da5dfc Sun 2020-07-12 09:10:42 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 10:48:53 BST
-18 01ff172fe36f452792a569d1578b3a83 Sun 2020-07-12 10:49:13 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 10:59:50 BST
-17 e08c4514838f42acae43dc387f0261b4 Sun 2020-07-12 11:00:12 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 11:50:50 BST
-16 8ec4ffe7b57a456484af8303a049b1da Sun 2020-07-12 11:51:10 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 12:16:43 BST
-15 515dcb5c7df74a51833dc6844faa8f48 Sun 2020-07-12 12:19:31 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 12:19:41 BST
-14 7b8a9c33dd5c4796ab36d5e05ae00653 Sun 2020-07-12 12:33:52 BST—Sun 2020-07-12 20:11:25 BST
-13 e5f2d515579b4c34891c9ff50194f325 Mon 2020-07-13 04:36:32 BST—Mon 2020-07-13 06:25:56 BST
-12 1f30796b21c54d15b066e719b6a06343 Mon 2020-07-13 06:26:16 BST—Mon 2020-07-13 09:09:12 BST
-11 79119aa1d64e42ceb352ce6f5a0cb273 Mon 2020-07-13 12:02:14 BST—Mon 2020-07-13 13:18:10 BST
-10 ae4f73942e1647afa65c3ba1bd765fe5 Mon 2020-07-13 14:52:34 BST—Mon 2020-07-13 18:58:53 BST
 -9 3a546b2626784862a083dc3a7792f192 Mon 2020-07-13 18:59:12 BST—Mon 2020-07-13 19:11:37 BST
 -8 de96415b39f847d49d10ee3e3802e78d Tue 2020-07-14 04:53:21 BST—Tue 2020-07-14 08:23:03 BST
 -7 9c0089f216de43158047eac962914dd8 Tue 2020-07-14 08:23:23 BST—Tue 2020-07-14 08:38:10 BST
 -6 33a9952eb4d34f14aa214af4d2932a81 Tue 2020-07-14 14:39:14 BST—Wed 2020-07-15 04:55:06 BST
 -5 7dcc8e317d0f4f3db87d618622535fe7 Wed 2020-07-15 04:55:25 BST—Wed 2020-07-15 04:58:47 BST
 -4 916b7472dc514927ba2e882faa98a70f Wed 2020-07-15 04:59:06 BST—Wed 2020-07-15 09:06:40 BST
 -3 37f12071033f4c789ba16981aedb26a0 Wed 2020-07-15 13:24:22 BST—Thu 2020-07-16 08:43:47 BST
 -2 11411ae4d209474584e4b84245c4b166 Thu 2020-07-16 12:51:52 BST—Thu 2020-07-16 20:12:43 BST
 -1 46a45fa5f57443e3abacf02508627c26 Fri 2020-07-17 05:58:53 BST—Fri 2020-07-17 08:37:26 BST
  0 a0b600a491dc4bc5a2ad4b297ff77164 Fri 2020-07-17 12:29:40 BST—Sat 2020-07-18 06:17:01 BST
steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl -b -21 -p 0
-- Logs begin at Sun 2020-07-12 08:35:16 BST, end at Sat 2020-07-18 06:20:54 BST. --
Jul 12 08:35:16 steve-Inspiron-5580 kernel: Initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed
steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl -b -20 -p 0
-- Logs begin at Sun 2020-07-12 08:35:16 BST, end at Sat 2020-07-18 06:20:54 BST. --
-- No entries --
steve@steve-Inspiron-5580:~$ journalctl -b -19 -p 0
-- Logs begin at Sun 2020-07-12 08:35:16 BST, end at Sat 2020-07-18 06:20:54 BST. --
-- No entries --

[Cenuel]

but I still see a flash of illegible error message at the second point it displayed.

Run

Code: Select all

journalctl -b -p 0

immediately after booting up and logging in to see any messages the system deemed critical enough to flash up during the boot sequence.

Thanks. I turned my computer off after posting that message last night and when I rebooted just now, the message didn't appear, as confirmed when I checked with this command. Good command for me to try and remember for the future, though.

[Justin_Maxwell]

Paste this into a terminal:

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

What is this root-access URL sorcery, and why does it just return `The specified location is not mounted` on my just-upgraded Mint 20 system? ("admin:///" is not search friendly)

Ta.

[FahimKamal]

Code: Select all

initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed

Paste this into a terminal:

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

Change COMPRESS=lz4 to COMPRESS=gzip

Save the changes then:

Code: Select all

sudo update-initramfs -u

and reboot.

I was facing this error message since I updated to Mint 20. Finally I got it fixed. Thanks.

[Moonstone Man]

I was facing this error message since I updated to Mint 20. Finally I got it fixed. Thanks.

I'm glad I could help.

[tintilla10]

Code: Select all

initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed

Paste this into a terminal:

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

Change COMPRESS=lz4 to COMPRESS=gzip

Code: Select all

sudo update-initramfs -u

and reboot.

Ok, perfect. It was a pain in my ass.

root@Naranja:/etc/initramfs-tools# nano initramfs.conf
<< Change COMPRESS=lz4 to COMPRESS=gzip >>
root@Naranja:/etc/initramfs-tools# sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-42-generic

I: The initramfs will attempt to resume from /dev/sda5
I: (UUID=e3ee13414532143242348)
I: Set the RESUME variable to override this.

https://termbin.com/hlwj

[Justin_Maxwell]

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

What is this root-access URL sorcery, and why does it just return `The specified location is not mounted` on my just-upgraded Mint 20 system? ("admin:///" is not search friendly)

I tried this again, and now it works fine. A few updates and reboots in between. By 'works fine' I mean xed opens with RW access to the file.
I still get:

Code: Select all

 ** (xed:64859): WARNING **: 15:07:18.447: The specified location is not mounted 

in the terminal.

I would still like a pointer to documentation on this admin:/// thing if anyone has that info?

Cheers

[Jack.Handey]

Leave it on lz4.

Run:

sudo update-initramfs -c -k $(uname -r)

Reboot.

There is/was a bug in the ubuntu tools.

[jud]

Leave it on lz4.

Run:

sudo update-initramfs -c -k $(uname -r)

Reboot.

There is/was a bug in the ubuntu tools.

This didn't work for me

[nickg001]

hello
I have the same problem : this error message come up once during boot .
Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon 4.6.6

[michel_hanzen]

Sorry but it does not work for me either...

[Pjotr]

This is a simplified version of the means to work around this problem:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... .html#ID26
(item 26)

Now I wonder whether someone has already tried something other than gzip? Because initramfs.conf mentions six options:
# COMPRESS: [ gzip | bzip2 | lz4 | lzma | lzop | xz ]

Apparently gzip is slower than lz4, which might slow the boot process by several seconds. One of the other alternatives might be faster.

Of course I could test that myself, but I'm too lazy today, so I'm hoping somebody else has done the footwork already.

[jules6452]

Hello!

I'm new here, I'm facing the same problem, but I don't seem to be able to access OS, since this afternoon everytime I reboot I get the same error.

Is there a way to reboot in a safe way or to access the terminal?

Thank you for your help!

Edit - I don't seem to be able to access the GRUB neither, I tried all the keyboard bottoms and tried to summon ancient Greek gods but still nothing... I upgraded Linux Ulyana on my old 2008 Mac, all the previous versions were working perfectly

[rmlazzari]

Code: Select all

initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed

Paste this into a terminal:

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf

Change COMPRESS=lz4 to COMPRESS=gzip

Save the changes then:

Code: Select all

sudo update-initramfs -u

and reboot.

Just to say thank you, it worked well for me. Maybe, as Piotr said, it could be slower, maybe it makes a difference for NASA computers, but for ordinary users like me, the difference between 1s and 1.1s once in a boot-time is a big deal compared to that annoying message.

Thank you.

[rene]

Now I wonder whether someone has already tried something other than gzip? Because initramfs.conf mentions six options:
# COMPRESS: [ gzip | bzip2 | lz4 | lzma | lzop | xz ]

I minus lz4 tested/did those and cat at viewtopic.php?p=1853977#p1853977 which shows relative sizes at least. Speed is going to be partly dependent on hardware. I.e., cat could supposedly not outperform e.g. lz4 simply by having to read in more from disk on an old spinner. Maybe.

In any case easy to test; do as that, then just time uncompress of those images again.

[AllanMn]

I installed Mint 20 fresh, decoding failed problem....

Tried the COMPRESS=gzip fix, but no change, still getting decoding failed.

Also, I changed GRUB_DEFAULT=6 but the first OS entry is still the initial choice.

Not sure if these are related.

[rene]

Did you regenerate the initramfs-en with sudo update-initramfs -u -k all?

[AllanMn]

With "sudo update-initramfs -u" from the initial post...

[rene]

OK; will do.