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So, I boot up my netbook...and the main screen comes on, announcing Acer and whatnot. Then, it goes to to a black screen with a cursor in the upper left hand corner that blinks. For a long time.

Then a screen pops up. Generally it says something like this:

mount: mounting /dev/disk/by

and a lot of stuff following that

A lot of it involves:

/root/sys failed: no such file or directory and target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init." No init found. Try passing init = bootarg.

What can I do? I'm fairly certain my netbook is functioning, but is my software not? Is this a matter of reinstalling, or can I do something else to fix?

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Have you tried passing init=/bin/bash or so using Grub? You can do so at startup, by editing the line and adding the 'init' parameter. If that doesn't help or you don't know how to do so, you should boot a live CD and see what's exactly going on. – Robbietjuh Feb 23 '12 at 20:37
How exactly? I'm seriously a newb with this. Ie: Whats Grub, and whatnot? – Kit Feb 23 '12 at 20:39
Grub is the bootloader. It's a tiny, but really important piece of software that runs on your computer before Ubuntu gets booted. The bootloader actually goes through some processes and then calls Ubuntu so you can use your computer. If you're really new in all this, the easiest solution is to reinstall the system. If you've got really important files, you can try to back them up using a live CD. – Robbietjuh Feb 23 '12 at 20:42
Yeah, I don't really keep anything important on my netbook--the very last line in this little error thing is: (initramfs) it's all like a weird second language to me. I think I might be reinstalling... – Kit Feb 23 '12 at 20:44

1 Answer

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If you are not an expert, then finding and fixing the problem may be really, really difficult (but not impossible, of course).

Reinstalling Ubuntu is surely a solution, and I would recommend it, but note that you will lose your data. If you care about your data, you can backup it using a Live CD and an external hard drive. Also remember, when reinstalling, to replace the existing Ubuntu installation, and not to install it side by side.

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Thank you, yeah I'm just going to reinstall it. I have no data on the computer at current moment that warrants any saving and whatnot. Tank you! – Kit Feb 25 '12 at 4:49

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