New Ubuntu installs not loading

[NoOp]

On 02/24/2008 02:25 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 24/02/2008, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On an Intel DuoCore 2.8 gHz machine with 1GB RAM and two SATA hard
>>  drives, we install Ubuntu 7.10 and the first time we start the system
>>  it boots fine. After that, upon boot we get the Ubuntu graphic and a
>>  sliver of the loading bar. The machine stays like this for 3 minutes
>>  then goes to a screen that looks like this:
>>
>>  BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5ubuntu7) Built-in shell (ash)
>>  Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
>>
>>  (initramfs)
>>
>>  What must we do to have a working Ubuntu? Thanks in advance.
> 
> New info: we can start the machine by booting into the recovery mode
> from grub and then moving to runlevel 5 by typing "init 5". But what
> must we do to have it start in runlevel 5 from the standard boot?
> 

Every time I've seen this (and I have a machine that I can reproduce
simpy by adding a defective hard drive or CD drive) the problem has been
hardware related. To troubleshoot, I usually unplug everything except
the drive that I need to boot with; if that works, then I start plugging
things back in one at a time until it fails. I'm sure there are easier
ways, but that always seems to work for me.

That said, this might be of some help:

<http://www.chengfu.net/2008/01/ubuntu-not-booting-anymore-initramfs-failed-to-set-xfermode/>