Old SSD same but different laptop stuck at iniramfs promp

[dryheat]

Long story short my Thinkpad T480 died so I bought another used one. After moving my SSD over to the new machine when I try booting I end up at a Busybox initramfs prompt.

"BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.30.1-7ubuntu3) built-in-shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs) _

I've put the SSD into an external enclosure and plugged into into another computer and everything is there (the SSD is not encrypted) but I'm just having trouble booting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: to add to this this isnt the first time I've done this. I had a T480 and the motherboard gave out, bought another one and moved the SSD over and it fired right up no problems.

[jlittle]

If you do not have a backup of your data on the SSD, I suggest making a couple now.

I speculate that in dying, the old laptop has caused a problem on the SSD.

You could try an "unclean" reinstall, reinstalling to the SSD without formatting or deleting the existing data on it. If that fails, you might learn a bit more, and whether the SSD is salvageable.

[dryheat]

If you do not have a backup of your data on the SSD, I suggest making a couple now.

I speculate that in dying, the old laptop has caused a problem on the SSD.

You could try an "unclean" reinstall, reinstalling to the SSD without formatting or deleting the existing data on it. If that fails, you might learn a bit more, and whether the SSD is salvageable.

In that case I guess I'll just order another SSD and move over the contents from my home directory. Real bummer. I'm on my third t480. You'd think I'd move on by now but whatever.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Before you buy a new SSD, backup your data first and then try reformatting.
It could be software errors only…

OT:

[…]
I'm on my third t480. You'd think I'd move on by now but whatever.

Of all the laptops I have supported during the last decade I have made better experiences with HP EliteBooks than with Lenovo's T-series so far (and Apple MacBook Pros are in a league of their own, but sometimes they are hard to get to flawlessly work with Linux…).

[dryheat]

New SSD arrived today. Popped in it, tried installing Kubuntu 22.04 and am getting the error "ubi-partman failed with exit code 141".

I feel like I'm going insane. Any ideas what could be causing this?

Searching brings up this https://superuser.com/questions/1772...alling-kubuntu

But in the Thinkpad BIOS I can't find anything resembling "Rapid Storage Tech"

[Snowhog]

How are you attempting to install Kubuntu 22.04?

[dryheat]

How are you attempting to install Kubuntu 22.04?

USB stick, burnt with Etcher.

Edit: Just tried another USB stick, different brand, same error.

[dryheat]

This is the third t480 I've tried installing Kubuntu on and this is the only time I've had this problem. I'm at a loss.

I'm going to try a different version of Kubuntu and see what happens.

Edit: Tried 23.10 and same issue....

[Schwarzer Kater]

If the SSD connection is SATA make sure that SATA is set to AHCI in the UEFI/BIOS.

Also check the other UEFI/BIOS settings and try to remember if they were different for the previous ThinkPads…
And update the UEFI/BIOS to the most recent version - see the Lenovo support website for your laptop model.

[dryheat]

If the SSD connection is SATA make sure that SATA is set to AHCI in the UEFI/BIOS.

Also check the other UEFI/BIOS settings and try to remember if they were different for the previous ThinkPads…
And update the UEFI/BIOS to the most recent version - see the Lenovo support website for your laptop model.

I don't see an option in BIOS at all regarding storage.

[claydoh]

And update the UEFI/BIOS to the most recent version -

Yup, I was just going to jump in and suggest this myself, as well as possibly resetting the firmware to defaults as well.
This is often overlooked. Just do note any of your current settings before flashing, as the update very often resets things back to stock settings anyway, so just be aware of that, if you try.

[MoonRise]

Just a comment as I've had issues with SSDs when the system's BIOS/UEFI menu have any kind of RAID settings on. Have you verified that nothing RAID related is on. Intel has that bound to another system entity which I can't remember @ the moment. Something like RSTe, VMD or something of that nature.

[dryheat]

Just a comment as I've had issues with SSDs when the system's BIOS/UEFI menu have any kind of RAID settings on. Have you verified that nothing RAID related is on. Intel has that bound to another system entity which I can't remember @ the moment. Something like RSTe, VMD or something of that nature.

I haven't seen a single item relating to storage at all in the BIOS.

Something that's odd is the M2 SSD that I installed shows 0B using "lsblk"

Trying to create a new partition table on it just throws up a generic "error"

[dejjanku]

This issue might be present on the same equipment with other Linux distros. Possibly try other forums with larger user base where some might be using the same equipment as yours and provide more specific solutions...

[dryheat]

So I figured it out, kinda.

The T480 uses SATA M2 SSD's. I've been using PCI-E NVME drives. Why it worked in the past? I've read that there are adaptors that allow you to use NVME drives, which I'm assuming my older laptops had. I same-dayed a SATA drive and it worked.

In my searching I've also found reports of increased heat output from NVME drives when used with an adaptor, which makes me wonder if that's what eventually killed my last laptop.

Very bizarre that the last 2 T480's I've used had no issues (that I know of) with the same NVME drives.