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OCI Linux: Instance fails to boot with “Failed to execute /sbin/init, giving up: Exec format error”

Applies to:  

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Linux x86-64

Symptoms:

While applying OS patches via yum update, the update task became unresponsive, and the instance now fails to boot with the error below

Starting Switch Root...
[  !!  [    3.134021] systemd[1]: Failed to execute /sbin/init, giving up: Exec format error
] Failed to execute /sbin/init
[!!!!!![    3.135795] systemd[1]: Freezing execution.
] Failed to execute fallback shell.

Cause:

The yum update operation hung as shown below, after which the instance failed to boot.

Running scriptlet: samba-common-4.22.4-6.el9_7.noarch                                                                                                 

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