[PLUG] Busybox msg meaning?

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "wes" == wes  <plug at the-wes.com> writes:

Denis> Afew days ago I started my Ubuntu 14.04 desktop system only to be
Denis> presented with "Busybox V1.21.1 (ubuntu 1:1.21.0 1ubuntu1)
Denis> builtin shell (ash) initramfs"
Denis> 
Denis> Subsequent startings have been norma.
Denis> 
Denis> Does this mean an intermittent hardware failure ?

wes> There are a lot of things it could mean. Could be hardware or
wes> software. Are you positive you didn't have any removable media
wes> connected at the time which it may have attempted to boot from?
wes> Busybox is commonly found on devices with limited resources as a
wes> sort of basic operating environment. It may be used as a failsafe
wes> if the primary Ubuntu system is unable to boot, though I haven't
wes> seen that myself.

The busybox you saw, Denis, is almost certainly the shell associated
with the initramfs that grub tried to boot.  Generally, this is mounted
first, has enough modules and such to mount the rootfs so things can
keep going.  For some reason, the system didn't think it could mount
the rootfs.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net