Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS new install drops to busybox, disk not found

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 5:03am

Ubuntu Version:

24.04.1 LTS

Desktop Environment (if applicable):

Problem Description:

After a fresh install, I get the following error message : Ubuntu "BusyBox v1.36.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.36.1-6ubuntu3.1) built-in shell (ash)"

Relevant System Information:

HP Laptop 15-fd0048ca

Screenshots or Error Messages:

Ubuntu "BusyBox v1.36.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.36.1-6ubuntu3.1) built-in shell (ash)"

What I’ve Tried:

Rebooting off my live USB stick, which works. Also tried changing the boot order, so that it boots off the hard drive first. That didn't work. Tried Recovery Mode. Same error.

VMC · January 23, 2025, 5:19am

at (initramfs): Type ‘exit’ , then show us the messages that follow

rubi1200 · January 23, 2025, 5:24am

Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse

Is Ubuntu the only operating system or are you dual-booting with Windows?

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 5:32am

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 5:33am

No. It is strictly Ubuntu. Nothing else.

rubi1200 · January 23, 2025, 6:34am

At the prompt type blkid and show us the output please.

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 7:35am

Nothing came up.

rubi1200 · January 23, 2025, 8:21am

And this?
ls /dev/sd*

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 8:50am

rubi1200 · January 23, 2025, 9:00am

Well, either my Busybox ninja skills have escaped me or for some reason your disk is not being recognized.

I suggest booting the laptop from a live USB and first check with GParted if the drives are detected.

If yes, please post an image here.

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 9:15am

It seems to recognize my hard drive, from what I’m seeing here.

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 9:21am

If you notice in the top right corner of my first screenshot, it says : /dev/sda (230.96 GiB).

But if I click on the drop down arrow, I can select : /dev/sdb (119.20 GiB)

When I select that, this is what I see.

ogra · January 23, 2025, 9:29am

Did you forget to remove the install media (as the installer asks you in the last step of the installation) before rebooting ?

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 9:35am

No, but I started fooling around in GParted, and now it won’t boot at all. I deleted the partitions, thinking maybe it had to do with those two options in the top right corner.

Now it won’t boot even off my USB drive.

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 9:39am

If I go into my diagnostics screen & test my hard drive, I now get this message.

tea-for-one · January 23, 2025, 9:45am

Just to clarify, you have now deleted all the partitions on both sda and sdb?

rubi1200 · January 23, 2025, 9:48am

Please answer @tea-for-one because this is very important.

Before this went further I was about to suggest that maybe you had installed GRUB to sda instead of sdb during installation.

We could have fixed this.

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 9:56am

Yes. And now I have this error message. I scanned the QR Code & it took to me a video.
https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/ish_3053911-2842957-16

The video suggested I restore my BIOS settings, but that didn’t help me.

There has to be a way to fix this. Now I have a Hard Disk (3F0 ) error message. I thought if I deleted the partitions, upon reboot it would see that & suggest creating a new partition as part of the install process.

tea-for-one · January 23, 2025, 10:15am

In your UEFI settings:-
Disable Secure Boot
Disable TPM (and similar options if present)

Boot into a “Try Ubuntu” live session
Open a terminal and enter
sudo parted -l

Please post the output within code tags.

YMS_1975 · January 23, 2025, 3:29pm

OK, really quickly…I disabled the Safe Boot & disabled TPM. I’ve included screenshots. Interestingly enough, I was able to boot off my USB stick once again, and I reinstalled Ubuntu.

Unfortunately I still have the same problem. Anyways, I opened up the terminal & typed in that command you told me to (sudo parted -l), and here’s the results (included in a screenshot).