I've installed win 7 and ubuntu 11.04. I was trying to upgrade my machine to 11.10.

It was all good, it installed all the upgrades and asked me to restart.

After restarting I got the login screen only once. After that there was just a blank screen. So I manually restarted it.

Now whenever I tried to restart, I get the

Busybox v1.18.4 (Ubuntu 1:1.18.4-2ubuntu2) built-in shell(ash)

Enter help for a list of built-in commands. 



(initramfs)

Here's what happens when i boot:

• Bios loads



• Grub displays option to load:

  
  
  

  ubuntu with Linux 3.0.0-19-generic
  
  ubuntu with Linux 3.0.0-19-generic (recovery mode)
  
  Previous versions Linux
  
  memtest
  
  another memtest option
  
  win7 (loader) (on /dev/sda2)
  
  

I am able to log in to the Windows 7 though.

If I log on to the previous linux versions also I am ending up at the same error.

Things I have tried:

1. When I type exec startx it gives the following error:

   
   
   

   /bin/sh : exec: line 0: startx: not found
   
   
   
   [ 123.764413] kernel panic - not syncing : Attempted to kill init!
   
   [ 123.764441] Pid : 1, comm : init not tainted 3.0.0-19 generic #33-Ubuntu
   
   [ 123.764466] call Trace :
   
   

   
   
   

   and a bunch of commands

   
   
   

   The caps Lock but is blinking right now at this stage. I need to manually shut it down.




2. Tried to log in to the recovery mode

   
   
   

   It gives the error : a bunch of errors (Please let me know if I need to list them. ) Then the last error is No init found. Try passing init=bootarg.

Then I am stuck at the busybox error and the busybox initramfs prompt.

1. Tried to log in to the Previous Linux versions, but get the same busybox initramfs prompt.

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors



Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk identifier: 0xf5cd5cce

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/sda1            2048      206847      102400   de  Dell Utility

/dev/sda2   *      206848    30926847    15360000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda3        30926848   953147119   461110136    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda4       953149438  1465145343   255997953    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)

Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.

/dev/sda5       953149440  1239869439   143360000    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda6      1362751488  1465145343    51196928    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda7      1239871488  1346158591    53143552   83  Linux

/dev/sda8      1346160640  1362745343     8292352   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order



sudo sfdisk -uS -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 91201 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track

Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.

DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.

Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot    Start       End   #sectors  Id  System

/dev/sda1          2048    206847     204800  de  Dell Utility

/dev/sda2   *    206848  30926847   30720000   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda3      30926848 953147119  922220272   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda4     953149438 1465145343  511995906   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/sda5     953149440 1239869439  286720000   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda6     1362751488 1465145343  102393856   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sda7     1239871488 1346158591  106287104  83  Linux

/dev/sda8     1346160640 1362745343   16584704  82  Linux swap / Solaris