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(Summary) inittab problem

DISCUSSION Dermot Paikkos 4 participants 5 messages Feb 4, 2005 – Feb 7, 2005 1 message not in the archive

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#0 lore raw

Thanx to chuck, Yannick and Mateusz for their replies.

I got a boot: prompt from my floppy and did a
mount root=/dev/hda2 single

which at least one reply told me to do.

I thought I had tried all the tty (alt+fn) but I didn't see a login prompt when I looked. Perhaps I was a bit quick.

Thanx again.
Dp.

==== Original Message ==============
SYS: Slackware 9.1 on Dell Dim 2400, Intel Cel

I have go myself into a bit of a fix. I changed the default runlevel from 3 to 4 so I would get a GUI at boot up. However I haven't correctly configured my Xserver and now my system is stalling at boot-up and I can find a way to get access to a shell to edit the inittab.

Does anyone know of a switch/arg I could use that might allow me to boot the system into single users mode? I thought I could boot from my floppy which prompts me for a command to use.

Any ideas,
Dp.

~~
Dermot Paikkos * [email protected]
Network Administrator @ Science Photo Library
Phone: 0207 432 1100 * Fax: 0207 286 8668

#1 lore raw
Quoted 3 lines · Dermot Paikkos

I thought I had tried all the tty (alt+fn) but I didn't see a login prompt when I looked. Perhaps I was a bit quick.

You should see a prompt like this

#

single user mode doesnt look for a login, you're automaticly put into root.

Quoted 2 lines

Thanx again.
Dp.

Signature · 2 lines
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#2 lore raw
Quoted 9 lines · Jim C. Brown
Quoted 2 lines · Dermot Paikkos

I thought I had tried all the tty (alt+fn) but I didn't see a login prompt when I looked. Perhaps I was a bit quick.

You should see a prompt like this

#

But not on Slackware, It's more secure Linux distro than others and even on single user mode you are asked for user name and password.

Quoted 3 lines

single user mode doesnt look for a login, you're automaticly put into root.

This is not true on Slackware.

Quoted 5 lines
Quoted 3 lines

Thanx again.
Dp.

A message that is not in the archive (sent off-list or not yet received): [email protected]

#4 lore raw
Quoted 6 lines · Jim C. Brown
Quoted 4 lines · Mateusz Marzantowicz
Quoted 3 lines

You should see a prompt like this

#

Quoted 9 lines
Quoted 2 lines

But not on Slackware, It's more secure Linux distro than others and even on single user mode you are asked for user name and password.

Thanks, I didn't know that. (Nor did I know DP was using slackware.) That approach has mixed blessings of course (what if you want to get into single user mode because you forgot the root password and need to reset it? -- of course there are other ways to do that)

I couldn't imagine situation when sysadmin simply loses his password. But it could happen and than the only way to get into Slackware box is to hack it. ;-)

#5 lore raw
Quoted 8 lines · Mateusz Marzantowicz
Quoted 4 lines

Thanks, I didn't know that. (Nor did I know DP was using slackware.) That approach has mixed blessings of course (what if you want to get into single user mode because you forgot the root password and need to reset it? -- of course there are other ways to do that)

I couldn't imagine situation when sysadmin simply loses his password. But it could happen and than the only way to get into Slackware box is to hack it. ;-)

If you use the init=/bin/sh option, it will just run /bin/sh directly, with no login. Or you can boot using a repair disk.

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Glynn Clements <[email protected]>