Ubuntu wont boot after attempted upgrade and freeze

[krisa87]

Hi Everyone,

Last night I was upgrading Ubuntu as I was still using the 10.04 version.
While updating (about halfway) to 10.10, my laptop froze and I had to force a shut down.
When I tried to reboot, ubuntu wouldnt start up and I was left in the command prompt with the following message:

Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
- Bott args (cat /proc/cmdline)
-Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
-Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
-Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; Is /dev)

ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/44aa0716-ec-4fd1-97e4-6229b178574c does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11_ built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)



PLEASE HELP ANYONE!!! I am without a computer and have no idea what to do.

Thanks

[ixtok]

I am just a novice and since none of the experts have answered you, what I would do is get a live cd or usb of whatever version Ubuntu you want, run it as live, back up any of your essential files/data externally and then do a fresh install.

[Michael Dooley]

Please use some google-foo. For your search term, I'd use the following:

ubuntuforums: initramfs

Good luck krisa87. Please let us know how your problem is going - whether it is on its way to being solved or not.

[NikTh]

Hi ,
Do you really want the 10.10 version.. ? this version expired 2-3 days ago.
I suggest to download an iso of 11.04 and after ... Then burn it and install from beginning. Probably you will lose your data , but if you want to backup do it with the existing (i guess) iso of 10.10 .

[pierreyy]

I would suggest a live cd/usb to recover and backup your files, after that a re-install of the OS.

[daslinkard]

It seems that someone else had this exact issue as you....and this is how they fixed it (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6581939&postcount=322). Hope this helps.

Or you can try this link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1018403&page=2) in which I found the above link.

[jlownie]

I had the same problem, and the way I fixed it was to edit the entries in /boot/grub/menu.lst and change root=<uuid> to root=/dev/sda1. Also I added rootdelay=90.

You can do this from the startup grub menu, something like pressing 'e' when selecting a menu item?

Hope this helps someone.

- James

[YannBuntu]

A broken upgrade generally breaks many system functions.
The easiest and fastest solution to repair the system files is to burn a UbuntuCD and follow this tutorial: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuReinstallation

Remark: 10.10 is obsolete. Use a 10.04 or 12.04 CD.