Machine fails to boot. Message: 'No init found. Try passing init = bootarg.'

My daughter's laptop is running Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid. Every couple of weeks or so she turns it on and gets this message:

      No init found. Try passing init = bootarg.

      BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11) built-in shell (ash)
      Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

      (initramfs) _

It won't boot and BusyBox doesn't have the command to fix the filesystem (fsck - see below).

To fix this you have to put in a live CD or SystemRescueCD and type the following command at a terminal:

fsck -y /dev/sda1

(It needs sudo if used with a live CD)

fsck usually finds a problem with the file system - the most recent time it found some inconsistencies in the free blocks data structures.

The machine then boots every time and no data has been lost. Pretty benign. However it does mean that my daughter has to carry around a CD with her every where she goes - not a great advertisement for ubuntu!

BTW I thought it might be due to a faulty hard drive so I changed it and restored her stuff (I used clonezilla to image the old disk to an external drive). No luck - she still gets the problem!

She always shuts down the machine the correct way - using the graphical shutdown tool. Mount shows that her partition uses ext4 filesystem.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-27-generic-pae 2.6.32-27.49
Regression: No
Reproducible: No
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-27.49-generic-pae 2.6.32.26+drm33.12
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-27-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: robm 1682 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xb0000000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC883'
   Components : 'HDA:14f12c06,1025010f,00100000 HDA:10ec0883,10250000,00100002'
   Controls : 28
   Simple ctrls : 16
Date: Sat Jan 15 10:47:36 2011
Frequency: Once every few weeks.
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=21eef81f-e12d-4284-8d85-7b0a48dca9fc
Lsusb:
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c018 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Acer, inc. Aspire 5050
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-27-generic-pae root=UUID=3f6a8f70-6ead-4b18-9d34-7834ecbe9dd4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.1
SourcePackage: linux
WifiSyslog:
 Jan 15 10:45:12 freddy NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> group handshake
 Jan 15 10:45:12 freddy NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: group handshake -> completed
dmi.bios.date: 01/23/07
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: v1.3303
dmi.board.name: Prespa M
dmi.board.vendor: Acer, Inc.
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer, Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrv1.3303:bd01/23/07:svnAcer,inc.:pnAspire5050:pvrNotApplicable:rvnAcer,Inc.:rnPrespaM:rvrNotApplicable:cvnAcer,Inc.:ct1:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 5050
dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer, inc.