diff --git a/usr/share/archboot/base/init b/usr/share/archboot/base/init
index 2438f0bdf..964a1df70 100755
--- a/usr/share/archboot/base/init
+++ b/usr/share/archboot/base/init
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ else
 		/bin/mknod /dev/root b ${BLOCKDEVICE} >/dev/null
 		export root="/dev/root"
         fi
-	if [ ! -b "${root}" ]; then
+        if [ ! -b "${root}" -a ! -L "${root}" ]; then
 		err "Unable to detect or create root device '${root}'"
 		echo "You are being dropped to a recovery shell"
 		echo "    Type 'reboot' to reboot"