[ubuntu] cannot install Hardy - initramfs error

[Shaman82]

Stanley82's workaround did the trick for me; I booted with the older kernel and all is well, so far. I've also seen on other threads that changing drive settings from SATA to RAID in the system BIOS is working for some. I've been using Linux for a while, but I am still a noob; take this post for whatever it's worth, if anything.

[ProtocolOH]

I've found a related bug. I had previously tried installing Gibbon (7.10) on a new box I'd built, and really didn't have any issues with it. But I didn't need the box immediately, so I let it sit idle. Now that Heron is out, and it's a LTS release, I decided to have a go.

But even after diagnosing a bad Heron ISO burn (and then verifying that my second disc was 100% OK by booting it on another machine and checking it), my new box would always dump to the BusyBox/initramfs prompt. I thought maybe it was the new RAID card (RocketRaid 3120) I'd put in. I pulled all my expansion cards, but the problem persisted.

So I went into BIOS and reverted to "Optimized Defaults". And whaddaya know, the system boots off the Heron CD and goes into the installer. Huh. So, on a hunch, I went back into BIOS to see what had reverted. I made one change... to tell BIOS that I had no 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive installed (I don't). I rebooted, and got the BusyBox prompt. Flipped the setting back (to saying I had a drive), and Heron boots.

If you think I should file a bug, please give this n00b a URL to point me to where I should do that.

Hardware:

Foxconn 6150BK8MC-KRSHN2 MiniATX mobo (nForce 430 / GeForce 6150)
BIOS revision 012306 (58GW1P27, Jan 23 2006?)
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (Socket 939, 2.2GHz)
2GB (2 x 1GB) Buffalo PC3200 DDR RAM (dual-channel)
Sun Quad Ethernet X1034A (PCI)
Adaptec AHA2940UW SCSI adapter (PCI)
HighPoint RocketRAID 3120 (PCI-E x1)
2x WD 200GB SATA drives (attached to RR3120 in RAID 1)
1x WD 80GB drive (attached to mainboard)
1x Samsung IDE CD/DVD burner

(Note: I'm seeing about upgrading the BIOS to 58GW1P34, but Foxconn only provides DOS-mode flash utilities... you realize what a pain in the *** it is to try and make a DOS boot disk without a floppy drive?)

EDIT: I managed to update my BIOS to version P34 (from version P27), and no change in this behavior. I reverted to Optimized Defaults in the BIOS (which configures Floppy A as a 3.5" drive). I booted the Heron CD, and started the disc self-check utility to verify that the utility was booting correctly. Once it started doing the actual check, I rebooted, went into BIOS, and only changed the floppy setting (to "no drive"). Saved, rebooted, started into the Heron disc-check utility, and after a few sweeps of the Cylon bar (what do you call that thing, anyway?), I got dumped into the BusyBox/initramfs prompt. So there ya go... bug confirmed. Please give me a URL if you want me to report a bug.

[blueorder]

Give this post a read. might be able to help.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...76&postcount=6

[tormod]

Originally Posted by ProtocolOH Please give me a URL if you want me to report a bug.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...linux/+filebug

(see also the links in my signature)

[ProtocolOH]

Originally Posted by tormod https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...linux/+filebug (see also the links in my signature)

Danke. I searched for related bugs, and there were a couple of close matches, but none seemed to involve the mechanic of changing BIOS settings and having that cause Hardy to fail to boot. So I went ahead and filed a new one:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/226519

It may end up being a dupe of another bug, but whoever's in charge of the original bug should be able to figure it out pretty quickly. Thanks.

[stanley82]

I also had this initramfs on another system using Xubuntu install. It was due to an error on my CD (guess a r/w is not as good as read only) so suggest choosing check CD before selecting install. Regards Ian.

[sharky517]

I also had the initramfs error, not to mention the installation process seemed to take longer than it should. After reading this post i simply added all_generic_ide to my boot options and everything went smoothly. I love when it's a one search solution!

[uniontroublemaker]

Inserting a floppy finally resolved this problem for me, after burning numerous CDs and DVDs thinking they were bad. I even ordered a CD by mail. I was finally able to do a clean re-install of Hardy to fix a corrupted online upgrade.

[stanley82]

I am sure that you are right. I overcame the issue by reverting to the Gutsy kernel and that is what I am still using on Hardy. I am sure that most of these problems are due to a bad upgrade file or bad disk. A corrupted file somewhere. I was asked to cut a CD and retry. I did that and selected check CD before doing anything else and once that checked out I ran the CD with out changing my HD settings. That was fine. So how do I get the Hardy kernel off the CD and into /boot....? Regards Ian.

[iqiszero]

Folks,
I think I have a great news to fix this initramfs issue. Here is what I did.

At the LiveCD initial boot screen:
Select F6 for more options
Add the following option to the beginning of the options list:
break=top
Press enter to start booting
Ubuntu will start booting, but kick you out to a command prompt; at the prompt type these two commands:
modprobe ata_piix
modprobe ide_generic
exit

You will now boot into the LiveCD normally.
Above worked successfully and I hope your case is working fine.