no init found, Try passing init=bootarg AND Live CD does not load

**maurolust** · February 13th, 2011

Hello

First of all, my problem is pretty similar to what happened here, but since my ubuntu 10.04 Live CD does not load ever (I left it running for hours and nothing), I decided to start a new thread, as suggested in the other thread.

I did manage to load a Xubuntu live CD (from 2008 that I had lying around) that tells me I can't mount my two partitions (dev/sda1 is root and dev/sda2 is a logical partition with /home and swap.). The full message is:

Code:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1, missing codepage or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg |tail or so

When I try

Code:

dmesg|tail

I get

Code:

[125.073772] apm: disabled - APM is not SMP safe.
[219.958913] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
[228.628778] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
[281.502846] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
[281.617426] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)
[281.737522] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240)

and so on.

I have tried

Code:

fsck dev/sda1
fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)

, which tells me nothing

I can only assume I have several damaged sections in my HDD, but no idea of a solution.

Obs: The 10.04 live cd does load on other PCs, but on this one it just shows a splash screen with the "loading" animation running on and on. I can't even check the disk for errors and get no error message. I did run a memory check, which is OK.

**Rubi1200** · February 13th, 2011

If you can boot the computer with the Xubuntu CD, please do the following:

Choose the option "Try Ubuntu without any changes." Once the desktop loads come back here and do the following:

1. Download the boot info script. There is a link in my signature.
2. Once downloaded, move the boot info script to the desktop.
3. Open a terminal and run the command

Code:

sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will create a RESULTS.txt file on the desktop. Paste the entire contents of that file back here in a new post. Once pasted highlight all text and click the # sign on the toolbar to place code tags around the text.

**maurolust** · February 13th, 2011

Code:

                Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in 
    partition #1 for /boot/grub.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext3
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Mounting failed:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so


sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info:  

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext3
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Mounting failed:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda5,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so


sda6: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes


Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1    *             63    83,891,429    83,891,367  83 Linux
/dev/sda2          83,891,491   488,396,799   404,505,309   5 Extended
/dev/sda5          83,891,493   484,282,117   400,390,625  83 Linux
/dev/sda6         484,284,416   488,396,799     4,112,384  82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/sda1        5df18933-02f2-4629-b5d0-2f09bb4cdaee   ext3                                     
/dev/sda5        c4146ee5-87b1-4c00-a971-ee39d1ef195f   ext3                                     
/dev/sda6        bbe217f2-1163-4f8f-bd50-fc99345a2b7e   swap                                     

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/bus/usb     /proc/bus/usb            none       (rw,bind)

=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader  on sda2



=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

hexdump: /dev/sda2: No such file or directory
hexdump: /dev/sda2: No such file or directory

Thank you Rubi

**Rubi1200** · February 13th, 2011

There appear to be problems with both sda1 and sda5.

What is this referring to?

couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features

I am not even sure where you should start, with the root file system or /home.

Have you tried Testdisk?

**maurolust** · February 13th, 2011

Originally Posted by Rubi1200

There appear to be problems with both sda1 and sda5.

What is this referring to?

I am not even sure where you should start, with the root file system or /home.

Have you tried Testdisk?

I am learning about Testdisk for the first time now. I'll see what Parted Magic Live CD can do for me.

Here is the whole output when I tried dmesg |tail. It doesn't make much sense to me.

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ dmesg |tail 
[  281.737522] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[  281.870583] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[  674.057034] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[  735.998943] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[ 1663.005157] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[ 3656.696942] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[ 3656.835343] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[ 3656.947771] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[ 4178.277420] EXT3-fs: sda1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
[ 4178.363233] EXT3-fs: sda5: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).

is what I got after running dmesg |tail.
I wonder, if both partitions are unmounted, then where is my desktop being saved?

/root , in my opinion, should have priority. /home only has documents, no applications.

**maurolust** · February 13th, 2011

Well,

I tried testdisk, followed the instructions in the step by step guide, but forgot to backup the log file before restarting the computer (I shall remember not to turn my brain off when following step-by-step guides).

Essentially what I did was mark the damaged partitions with D, the /root partition with * and the /home with L. I could not keep the structure unless I marked the swap with D as well, so the swap had to go.

Then I restarted and had the same old problem.

boot info now gives me this:

Code:

                Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in 
    partition #1 for /boot/grub.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext3
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Mounting failed:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so


sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext3
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Mounting failed:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda5,
       missing codepage or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so


=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes


Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1    *             63    83,891,429    83,891,367  83 Linux
/dev/sda2          83,891,430   488,408,129   404,516,700   f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5          83,891,493   484,295,489   400,403,997  83 Linux

/dev/sda2 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda

blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/sda1        5df18933-02f2-4629-b5d0-2f09bb4cdaee   ext3                                     
/dev/sda5        c4146ee5-87b1-4c00-a971-ee39d1ef195f   ext3                                     

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/bus/usb     /proc/bus/usb            none       (rw,bind)

The 'W95 Ext d (LBA)' in dev/sda2 looks odd. What should a Linux extended partition be labeled?

What recovery Live CD is most recommendable in this case, downloading testdisk to the desktop of a xubunTOS live CD is probably not the best way to do this.

**maurolust** · February 15th, 2011

So, when testdisk doesn't work, what should I do? Try again and again, disk duplicate and format?
Is it best to use Parted Magic with the CD on or running on RAM?

**maurolust** · February 16th, 2011

So, here is what I did:

Used testdisk to fix all failed partitions
Used fsck.ext4 (without the -p option) to recover the sda1 superblocks. This took a while and I had to hold the "y" key for a few seconds, which doesn't seem to be very sensible.
tried to boot ubuntu, but got a message saying it couldn't mount the /home partition (/sda2).
used fsck.ext4 on sda2 as well
got back to square 1, now I get the same "no init found..." message I had in the beginning.

I'm afraid the most logical thing to do now is try to backup all my files from /sda2, format the whole drive and reinstall ubuntu. Should I use photorec for this, or just copying will do?

Is there anyway I can check the "health" of my HDD after I format it. Am I to expect this to happen again and again if I don't get a new HDD?

**Rubi1200** · February 16th, 2011

Should I use photorec for this, or just copying will do?

Whichever works best I suppose.

You can try and recover data with Photorec, but be aware that file names etc, can get messed up (from what I have read).

I think you may have little choice but to reinstall. Testdisk is usually a good choice for repairing damage, but whatever happened is apparently too much for the system.

Can you check the HDD status from the LiveCD?

Use the Disk Utility; it should give you an idea about the health of your drive e.g. bad sectors etc.