Installing on a brand new laptop doesn't work - Busybox and Boot arg error

Installing Zorin OS
1

Hi, I was installing Zorin on a brand new Asus BR1204FG. I never used the pre-installed Windows but started it with the Zorin boot stick. The live system ran flawlessly, so I continued with the installation. Selected the option "Delete Windows" in the installer and activated the loading of proprietary drivers and downloading of updates. After the installation and reboot, Grub appeared with the selection of Zorin. But then the joy ended. The well known Busybox error appears. When entering exit, the following message appears.

IMG_1258
IMG_12581920×699 114 KB

My previous searches here in the forum or elsewhere on the net have not really got me anywhere. And my situation is also different because I don't use dualboot and there is no windows anymore. Is there a quick and easy solution to the problem?

Thank you for your help!

2

Did you shutdown before beginning install or reboot? Simple reboots might have some issues. Also, did you opt to install updates while installing the OS? If so... that could have been it - I've never had a working system after using the download updates as you install option lol..

3

Also check you have done basic pre-installation things, like turning off Secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS/UEFI. You should have turned off Fast Start-Up in Windows before dumping it, but too late for that now.

See this pre-installation advice: Before you install

1 Like
4

You could take a Look at this:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1020872/busybox-initramfs-again-and-again

5

Additionally, when Windows was the OS, the BIOS usually sets hard drive settings to RAID - for GNU/Linux to run, this needs to be set to AHCI.

6

First try was without it, second try was with it. Both ended the same way.

Sec and Fastboot are disabled. I didn't use windows and now it's gone. Can this really still affect the installation?

Is this not outdated? How ever it doen't help because everything looks different on my machine.

Was already on AHCI.

7

Zorin 17 is a fork of Ubuntu 22.04. Looks like this could be a kernel error. It uses 6.8 kernel, you may need to downgrade to 6.5 kernel according to this askubuntu thread:

How to fix BusyBox Initramfs Error on Ubuntu 22.04 , showing many types of error - Ask Ubuntu

8

As it is a new computer, have you checked BIOS for any other Security items that are activated. e.g. TPM?

Which USB burner tool did you use and from that tool which of GPT or MBR was selected?

1 Like
9

Ok but how to downgrade to an older kernel when I can not boot into the system? I'm not familiar with those things.

Couldn't find an option for TPM in Bios.

Balena Etcher was the tool and I used the USB-Drive already several times successfully for installation on other PCs.

10

Downgrade Ubuntu 22.04 Kernel

When you cannot boot into Ubuntu 22.04 due to a kernel issue, you can attempt to downgrade to an earlier kernel using a live USB environment. Here are the steps:

  1. Boot from a live USB environment.

  2. Access your system's file system. You may need to mount your root partition.

  3. Install the older kernel version using the package manager. For example, if you want to install kernel version 5.15.0-73, you can use the command:

sudo apt-get install linux-image-5.15.0-73-generic

This command installs the specified kernel version.

  1. After installing the older kernel, reboot your system from the live USB environment and select the older kernel from the GRUB menu. To do this, press Esc during boot to show the GRUB menu, then select the older kernel from the "Advanced options for Ubuntu" menu.

  2. Once you have successfully booted into the older kernel, you can remove the newer kernel that was causing issues. To remove a specific kernel, you can use:

sudo apt-get purge linux-image-unsigned-6.1.1-0601010-generic

Replace linux-image-unsigned-6.1.1-0601010-generic with the exact name of the kernel you want to remove.

  1. To ensure that the older kernel is used by default, you can modify the GRUB configuration. Edit the /etc/default/grub file and set GRUB_DEFAULT to the name of the older kernel entry in the GRUB menu. For example:
GRUB_DEFAULT="Advanced options for Ubuntu>Ubuntu, with Linux 5.15.0-73-generic"

After editing, run sudo update-grub to apply the changes.

By following these steps, you should be able to boot into Ubuntu 22.04 using an earlier kernel version that is more stable for your system.

AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."

Just change the reference to 5.15 to 6.5.

11

I did a new install with Ubuntu 24.04 and it worked out of the box without any hassle.
Weird...

12

Out of interest, which kernel do you have with Ubuntu 24.04?

As you have a new machine, the kernel version may make a real difference.

13

Kernel is 6.11.0-26

14

Guess that means waiting for Zorin 18 which will be based on Ubuntu 24.04. Unless someone on here has managed to upgrade to that kernel without breaking Zorin.