/sbin/init not found during boot, dropped into initramfs sh

[robertb]

After upgrading to the latest 4.9.0-3 kernel on Debian, I am unable to boot. It was working perfectly before. Now, I'm getting the dreaded "target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init".

Approximately, it says:

Code: Select all

Scanning for BtrFs filesystem
usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type f] [-i] [-n] device directory
filesystem doesn't have request /sbin/init
mount: no such file or directory

I tried fsck on the disk; it is fine. (I also tried fsck -f to make sure. No go.)

I tried manually setting init=/dev/sda4 during grub. Again, didn't help.

I can successfully mount /dev/sda4 from a live CD:

$ mount /dev/sda4 /mnt
$ mount --bind /proc/ /mnt/proc
$ mount --bind /dev/ /mnt/dev
$ mount --bind /sys/ /mnt/sys

and chroot into it:

$ chroot /mnt

And I can see that /sbin/init does indeed exist:

# ls /sbin/init
/sbin/init

I can even run it:

# /sbin/init
Usage: init {-e VAR[=VAL] | [-t SECONDS] {0|1|2|3|4|5|6|S|s|Q|q|A|a|B|b|C|c|U|u}}

Within the chroot, I tried running "update-initramfs" and "update-grub". Both ran successfully, but neither helped.

It seems as if "update-initramfs" is generating a bogus initrd that won't mount the root system properly.

It is running initramfs=0.120+deb8u3 and sysvinit-core=2.88dsf-59.9

[GarryRicketson]

I am wondering what you upgraded from ?

It was working perfectly before

Can you just go back to the kernel you had before ? If it was working
perfectly, that seems like the logical thing to do.
It might also help others to help you if you tell us what version of Debian
you are actually using.

[ruffwoof]

Maybe a conflict in /etc/fstab. Perhaps try temporarily commenting stuff out in that.