Ubuntu 16.04/17.10 Boots to Initramfs

Question

I am running Ubuntu 16.04 on a HP Pavilion Laptop 15-AW004NA. It ran initially for a couple of weeks fine, but now only boots to initramfs. I have re-installed Ubuntu a few times, it will typically work once or twice. Then crash whilst doing a normal operation such as web browsing. After which it wont boot past initramfs.

I have tried: -

manually running the fsck (with -y command it cycles through thousands of commands and CPU hikes up) re-installing Ubuntu 16.04 (encrypted and non-encrypted discs) installing Ubuntu 16.04 then upgrading to 17.10 installing Lubuntu 16.04

I have checked the hard drive using Smart Data and Self Tests, results looked fine.

Live boot works fine with Ubuntu and Lubuntu.

Any ideas how i can debug further???

Cheers Lizard

XXXX@Lizard-Laptop:~$ grep -i sda /var/log/syslog*
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop systemd[1]: Starting Cryptography Setup for sda3_crypt...
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop systemd-cryptsetup[746]: Volume sda3_crypt already active.
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop systemd[1]: Started Cryptography Setup for sda3_crypt.
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop systemd[1]: Found device /dev/mapper/sda3_crypt.
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop systemd-fsck[751]: /dev/sda2: clean, 299/124928 files, 144327/499712 blocks
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop systemd-fsck[750]: /dev/sda1: 8 files, 870/130812 clusters
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.323111] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/932 GiB)
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.323113] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 4096-byte physical blocks
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.323123] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.323125] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.323140] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.429742]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [    4.430076] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [   35.639691] EXT4-fs (sda2): mounting ext2 file system using the ext4 subsystem
/var/log/syslog:Aug 31 19:12:21 Lizard-Laptop kernel: [   35.778035] EXT4-fs (sda2): mounted filesystem without journal. Opts: (null)
XXXX@Lizard-Laptop:~$ 
XXXX@Lizard-Laptop:~$ ls -alt /var/crash
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root     4096 Feb 15  2017 ..
drwxrwsrwt  2 root whoopsie 4096 Feb 15  2017 .

Solution

To check the file system on your Ubuntu partition...

• boot to the GRUB menu
• choose Advanced Options
• choose Recovery mode
• choose Root access
• at the # prompt, type sudo fsck -f /
• repeat the fsck command if there were errors
• type reboot

If for some reason you can't do the above...

• boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB
• start gparted and determine which /dev/sdaX is your Ubuntu EXT4 partition
• quit gparted
• open a terminal window
• type sudo fsck -f /dev/sdaX # replacing X with the number you found earlier
• repeat the fsck command if there were errors
• type reboot

Comments

[Boris Hamanov]

Do you dual-boot with Windows? Do you have a SSD? If so, what make/model?

[Lizard88]

Nope just Ubuntu on the hard drive and no its not solid state. Model is WDC WD10JPVX-60JC3T0. Cheers

[Boris Hamanov]

Let's run a manual fsck once more. See my brief answer, below. If it outputs more than the normal pass 1, pass 2, etc... then copy/paste that info into your original question, ping me at @heynnema, and I'll take a look for you. ps: also do grep -i sda /var/log/syslog* and ls -alt /var/crash and copy/paste that into your question also.

[Lizard88]

Thanks for your help. The second option seems to have worked. Its been rebooted a few times and seems stable. I have also pasted the requested logs above.

[Boris Hamanov]

@Lizard88 the logs look fine. Do you dual-boot with Windows?

[Lizard88]

No its just Linux. Swiped Windows the day i got the laptop :-) Ive installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu will see how that goes.

[Amanda]

(would love explicit instructions on booting to grub menu)

[Boris Hamanov]

If you don't see the GRUB menu at boot time, you can hold down the SHIFT key at boot time to show it.