Starting last week, one of my system running 25.10 started giving me the following error:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
I’ve checked a couple of references, such as https://askubuntu.com/questions/1136480/initramfs-error-when-installing-updating, yet none of them managed to provide me with a solution.
The most exhaustive answer I found was to run the following:
sudo apt remove initramfs-tools
sudo apt clean
sudo apt install initramfs-tools
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a
Sadly after doing so, it did not fixed my problem:
$ sudo apt remove initramfs-tools
sudo apt clean
sudo apt install initramfs-tools
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
3cpio busybox-initramfs dracut-install initramfs-tools-bin initramfs-tools-core klibc-utils libklibc
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
REMOVING:
initramfs-tools
Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 1, Not Upgrading: 2
1 not fully installed or removed.
Freed space: 66.6 kB
Continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 381788 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...
Installing:
initramfs-tools
Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 2
Download size: 8,440 B
Space needed: 66.6 kB / 26.5 GB available
Get:1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing-updates/main amd64 initramfs-tools all 0.150ubuntu3.1 [8,440 B]
Fetched 8,440 B in 0s (109 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package initramfs-tools.
(Reading database ... 381778 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../initramfs-tools_0.150ubuntu3.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Solving dependencies... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Hit:1 https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing InRelease
Hit:3 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing-security InRelease
Hit:4 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing-updates InRelease
Hit:5 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing-backports InRelease
Hit:6 https://download.sublimetext.com apt/stable/ InRelease
Hit:7 https://repo.librewolf.net librewolf InRelease
Hit:8 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu questing InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
N: Missing Signed-By in the sources.list(5) entry for 'https://download.sublimetext.com'
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing:
cloud-init cloud-init-base
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following upgrades have been deferred due to phasing:
cloud-init cloud-init-base
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Solving dependencies... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.150ubuntu3.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic
cp: cannot stat '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf': No such file or directory
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.17.0-14-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
$
I am running 25.10 on 2 similar systems and am only having this problem with one.