Busybox initramfs, KUbuntu 12.04 64bit

[zolkin]

This is the check sum from md5sum for the file I downloaded earlier
545c6cbbea69d9b5e3633d9213b8547a

[senya]

Lets assume, that you are making your boot disk correctly. So the problem is possibly that ubuntu distro cannot boot on your hardware due to some specific problems.
I can suggest you to try to boot in live with some other distro. Good option is parted magic, although it is went for paid downloads.
You can try any modern distro to boot from, for example http://www.altlinux.com/en/go/download/ https://fedoraproject.org/ http://www.planetwatt.com/pages/downloads

[Buddlespit]

try this :

$ sudo lsblk
## this should be able to tell you your usb. Mine is /dev/sdd, so I'll use that as an example. Make sure you get the right disk, or you could potentially destroy all of the data on the target disk
$ sudo dd if=/path/to/your/kubuntu.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=4096

Be very very careful using this command

[zolkin]

Here is the story of whats happened with more details:

The laptop was turned on, and I dropped it. Right after that it still was working for a few hours with no sign of that something is wrong. But after the restart, it was not able to boot Kubuntu. Instead of showing Login/Password menu, the screen become black and shows INITRAMFS. It allows me to use a very limited number of commands (let say I do not even have sudo). Also it looks like system is not able to see some directories (let say \home and etc.). If I correctly understand, since it was working right after the drop, I damaged a HDD and have a bad sector or something like that, and now on the system cannot find a proper path to boot it. I still can log in to Windows partition with no bugs. If I am trying to run Kubuntu Recovery mode, it shows a lot of errors and stuff, and finally go to this INITRAMFS thing.

I am sure that finally I created a USB LIVE correctly (I tried few different softwares, including UNETBOOTIN, with different ways of getting *.iso - both direct download and specifying the link for software. And i checked md5sum - it was Ok). Depending on different softwares I used I have two slightly different results: it is either freeze on SYSLINUX 4.07 EDD 2013-07-25 Copyright (C) 1994-2013 H. Peter Anvin et al message or keep restarting laptop showing the same message.

What I am really care right now, is just how to get the data out of the HDD (let say the most important one is located in /home/me/work directory which is a whole different partition from root /. I actually have 4 partitions - Windows, Linux Root, and $/home/work$ $/home/media$ where I store data for linux).

I am not so care about "re-up"-ing the system, but getting the data out.

So if you have more suggestions of how i can do it I will greatly appreciate it.

Dear Snowhog!

So i tried to play with Live USB, which was unsuccessful. The final attempt with kubuntu-12.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso did not let me push the system forward (
The laptop keep rebooting in about 1 sec after the SYSLINUX... message.

Do you have any idea of what else can I try?

The reason why I am not trying to use GRUB2, because I have a lot of valued scientific data under my linux partition Im afraid to loose. So I am trying to be very ceareful.

Thank you in advance.

I'm beginning to think that you damaged the surface of the HDD in your PC; you dropped, yes?. Are you able to actually run Kubuntu from the Live USB? Not install from the Live USB, but boot into it and get the Desktop. If 'yes', but you are having the problem when trying to install to your HDD, then my comment of a damaged surface on the HDD would almost be a certainty.

[Qqmike]

Super Grub2 Disk would get you booted into the OS, I think.

To get the data off your /home, use a Live CD. That is described in various places around here; maybe someone could type up a quick series of commands; or, there is a section on doing that in this GRUB 2 how-to:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...uide-for-Users
(Section 3, Fixing Things, => Getting information and booting an OS)

To check your HDD health, you might try smartmontools (get it through Muon or Synaptic, or apt-get install smartmontools). I'm pretty sure you can run that from another HD or from a Live CD, but we need to check that.

[Qqmike]

In that how-to, it is the section: Using a Live CD to edit files in your OS

This is it copied to here (aplied to editing files, but you can use it to copy files off):

Quoted from my how-to:

This is done as you would normally do it. Of course, if you wish, you may use Super Grub Disk to boot into your OS and do the editing from there. Here is an outline of a standard way to use your Kubuntu Live CD.

Boot the Live Kubuntu CD, open Konsole, then as root make a directory, mount the filesystem containing the file you need to edit, open that file (possibly as root), edit it, save, quit, unmount the filesystem, exit.
Example
If the file you need to edit is called file_name and is on sdb3 (=(hd1,3)), start a Live CD Kubuntu session, open Konsole:
sudo fdisk -lu # to see/check your partitions, if necessary
Make a directory called /media/sdb3:
sudo mkdir /media/sdb3
Mount device sdb3 on directory /media/sdb3:
sudo mount /dev/sdb3 /media/sdb3
Change to that directory:
cd /media/sdb3
Then you may proceed in various ways:
Open Konqueror/Dolphin as root, then open the file_name:
in 8.10 or later: kdesudo konqueror (or dolphin)
in 8.04: kdesu konqueror (dolphin)
Make your edits, then File > Save, File > Quit.
Or, open file_name as root using Kate, then do the edits:
in 8.10 or later: kdesudo kate /path_to file_name
in 8.04: kdesu kate /path_to file_name
Make your edits, then File > Save, File > Quit
Unmount the directory; note the spelling of umount:
sudo umount /media/sdb3


So, once you access your files, you would copy them to, say, another drive or a USB thumb drive. Sometimes, you can get into the OS using Super GRUB2 Disk, then copy files off to a thumb drive or somewhere. But either way, you should be able to "get at" your data.

[zolkin]

As I posted above I can not go through
SYSLINUX 4.07 EDD 2013-07-25 Copyright (C) 1994-2013 H. Peter Anvin et al
message when I am trying to boot using Live USB. Can you explain me how to boot though?

[zolkin]

Or Am I misunderstood something, since as I said I dont even have a sudo when Im trying to log in in a regular way.

[Qqmike]

Maybe I misunderstood. It sounds like your PC can not even boot past the BIOS initialization?

[zolkin]

As I said when I am specifying in BIOS to use external device as a primary boot device it do not allow me to go through

[Qqmike]

I see. Your Live CD won't even go/boot. I better read your posts more closely. Strange, though, that your Live CD won't even boot.

[Qqmike]

btw, I think someone here should know how to get your through the syslinux booting. Now, have you tried Super Grub Disk? I know you may have some problems burning Live CDs or USBs, but have you tried it?

[Qqmike]

One worst case is to remove that HDD and try it in another computer.

[zolkin]

Now I did not try SUPER Grub, since I am not well understanding how it works. And unfortunately the idea to remove HDD is not the best for Sony Vaio (( it is technically more then complicated

[zolkin]

Since there are no other ideas, I guess i will try to understand Super Grub better now