Kevin Dubois

Java Champion | CNCF DevEx Tech Lead | Agentic AI Foundation Ambassador | Senior Principal Developer Advocate at IBM Content and opinions are my own.

sys admin 2 min read

[SOLVED] Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot upgrade: Waiting for Network Configuration

Published on October 14, 2011

I upgraded my Ubuntu desktop yesterday from 10.04 to 11.10 and ran into some pretty significant problems.  If you get an error saying ‘Waiting for Network Configuration’, and it sits there until it finally goes on to a black page, then try the following:

CTRL+ALT+F1 should get you to the command line.  Do not try to get into the command line from the recovery option, or you will run into ‘read only problems’.  From the command line, log in as root or a sudoer (your main user account should be in the group) and do the following things:

  1. create directories /run and /run/lock,
  2. move contents of /var/run into /run and /var/lock into /run/lock,
  3. delete directories /var/run and /var/lock
  4. create replacement simlinks; e.g. ‘ln -s /run /var/run’ and ‘ln -s /run/lock /var/lock’

For less experienced users, you will need to type the following commands:

sudo mkdir /run
sudo mkdir /run/lock
sudo mv /var/run/* /run
sudo mv /var/lock/* /run/lock
sudo rm -rf /var/run
sudo rm -rf /var/lock
sudo rm -rf /run/dbus/*
ln -s /run /var/run
ln -s /run/lock /var/lock

After that reboot your computer:

sudo reboot

Ubuntu should now start up properly.

8 Comments

Mr Maher

October 14, 2011 at 17:18

Hi – Your fix – fixed my problem ! – which was exactly as the above

So from my limited understanding the boot sequence lost contact with the databus ?

Kindest Raoul

mmfromh

October 16, 2011 at 12:17

Finally! This got me in! Thanks a lot.

Cutiyar

October 16, 2011 at 16:06

This Doesnt work with me .

thanks.

Lynn Xie

October 17, 2011 at 06:25

Thanks! You finally got me in!

eduardo

October 22, 2011 at 13:40

Thanks, this resolved my problem. The only thing that changed for me is the login window. It is now in the middle as the previous version, not on the left.

Alex K

December 12, 2011 at 22:27

I am trying to fix my “Waiting for configuration” error on a Ubuntu 11.10 bootable USB. This error does not occur right away – I can boot at least 10 times, and then I receive this particular error.

While trying the suggested fix – at the “mv /var/run/* /run” – I get the following error:

“mv: cannot stat `/var/run/*’ : Not a directory”

Do you know how I can fix my USB Ubuntu OS?

Thank you,
Alex K

Alex K

December 27, 2011 at 21:56

I installed Ubuntu 11.10 on a flash drive (with persistence), and I receive the “waiting for network configuration” message after roughly seven successful boots into the OS.

Any idea how to fix this issue on my fresh install on the USB?

Thank you,
Alex K

Thomas Vanhoutte

April 14, 2012 at 12:50

That did not work for me actually.
Searched around and finally found this tutorial and that worked like a charm for me!
http://www.codewhirl.com/2011/10/ubuntu-11-10-waiting-up-to-60-more-seconds-for-network-configuration/

I hope this guide helps someone out.

All the best

Comments are closed.