Fixing the initramfs Error When Booting Ubuntu

I wrote this post in Spanish in 2023 and adapted it to English in 2026.

If you turn on your Linux/Ubuntu computer and get a message like this:

(initramfs)

Take a deep breath and use the commands I'm about to give you to repair the disk errors that are keeping Linux/Ubuntu from booting properly.

1. Get the list of connected sda devices #

First, you need to know the number of the sdaX partition that's affected, so you can swap that "X" for the right number. For that, use this command:

lsblk -a

You're looking for the root partition, meaning the one mounted at /. It will look like the sda4 line near the bottom of this output:

(initramfs) lsblk -a

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0         0 loop
loop1    7:1    0         0 loop
loop2    7:2    0         0 loop
loop3    7:3    0         0 loop
loop4    7:4    0         0 loop
loop5    7:5    0         0 loop
loop6    7:6    0         0 loop
loop7    7:7    0         0 loop
sda      8:0    0 223,6G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda3   8:3    0  19,6G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda4   8:4    0 203,5G  0 part /
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

Now that we know the sda partition number, we can use the command that fixes the disk errors.

2. Repair the disk errors from initramfs #

Use the following command to repair the disk errors:

fsck -f /dev/sda4

From here on, press Y every time initramfs asks whether you want to repair a section of the disk.

3. Power off the computer from initramfs #

Once you've finished repairing all the disk errors that were breaking the Linux/Ubuntu boot, you can turn off the computer. For that you'll need this command:

poweroff -f

Wait for it to finish shutting down, give it about 5 seconds, and turn the computer back on. Everything should be back to normal.

The bottom line on the initramfs boot error #

If this happened to you, it's because your hard drive has a physical fault. In other words, the hardware is causing the problem, and you're only patching it with software for now.

I've had this problem with 2.5" solid-state drives, where the error shows up every now and then, even though I use that laptop as a server and never turn it off.

So the way to fix the initramfs boot error on Ubuntu/Linux once and for all is to buy a new drive and reinstall everything from scratch.