CRITICAL BUG IN initramfs-tools 0.131ubuntu1: Failed to execute /init (error -13)

[Marko Stanković]

I'm running cosmic with proposed enabled (yes, I know...) and just updated initramfs to 0.131ubuntu1
Upon reboot, I've got the message from summary.
Then I rebooted into a previous kernel version (4.15) and ran 'update-initramfs -u -k all' and that was stupid because it screwed the old initramfs...
Comparing new (4.17) and old (not updated 4.15) initramfs images on another computer with Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (x64), I've got this:
sm4rk0@Aspire-5336:~$ cpio -t < /boot/initrd.img-4.17.0-5-generic
kernel
kernel/x86
kernel/x86/microcode
kernel/x86/microcode/.enuineIntel.align.0123456789abc
kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin
98 blocks
sm4rk0@Aspire-5336:~$ cpio -t < /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-23-generic
.
kernel
kernel/x86
kernel/x86/microcode
kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin
56 blocks

[Marko Stanković (sm4rk0)]

The other computer (main one I'm writing from) got the same message after update to 0.131ubuntu1, so I booted with the older kernel (4.15), downgraded initramfs-tools, initramfs-tools-bin and initramfs-tools-core to 0.130ubuntu10 and successfully rebooted with the new kernel. I saved the broken and working initrd.img-4.17.0-5-generic images. Please advise if and where to upload them (27MB each).

[Marko Stanković (sm4rk0)]

Updating to 0.131ubuntu2 solved the problem. Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package initramfs-tools - 0.131ubuntu2

---------------
initramfs-tools (0.131ubuntu2) cosmic; urgency=medium

  * Fix permissions on /usr/share/initramfs-tools/init, which were mangled
    by merge-o-matic. LP: #1782854.

 -- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Fri, 20 Jul 2018 22:54:00 -0400