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SPECS
- RH 8.0 on Athlon 700MHz and 384MB RAM
- kernel 2.4.18-18.8-0
- dual booting Win98 using GRUB
PROBLEM
i was messing around trying to get Java working with my web browser (Opera) and made some adjustments to my "/etc/profile". turns out i had an invalid path in there, but upon booting Linux, i was able to log in via command line, edit "/etc/profile" and fix the errors. or so i thought...
now, when linux boots, it tries to go into the Graphical Login screen but can't. the screen is black and if i hit the keyboard, a blue screen comes up telling me there's an error with X and do i want to troubleshoot it, etc. when i do, the only options it gives me are resolution and colors. then it tries to restart X, fails and i'm back where i started.
QUESTION
how can i boot my kernel and not have it hang forever trying to start X? i'd hate to think my whole OS is hosed b/c of an error in my profile. all i want to do is boot to the command line login and i'll go from there.
You can always boot into single user mode by giving the following sequence at boot prompt kernel_image single *
remount root partition red-write mount -o remount /dev/hdXN **
become root and edit /etc/inittab file so that default runlevel specified is 3 instead of 5
Before:
id:5:initdefault:
After:
id:3:initdefault:
_______________
* If you are not sure what the kernel_image should read it is the name in boot options (LILO/GRUB bootloader graphical/text menu), and if there are some descripancy regarding boot prompt - while you see LILO graphical boot promt press Ctrl-X to get to the text boot promp and hit tab key to see available kernel_images
** You need to remount the / partiotion to get read-write access, 'cause single user mode mounts partitions read-only so you won't be able to do any changes unless you remount the partition. /dev/hdXN as specified in /etc/fstab file or it it uses LABEL notations then in /etc/mtab
thanks for the quick reply. as soon as the install ISO for Slackware 8.1 finishes downloading, i'll give your suggestion a try. assuming it works, i'm going to save my data and get rid of RH 8.0. i never did like it anyway.
upon trying your suggestion, i realized there is no "kernel_image" command when using the text-based console in GRUB. there's "kernel", but that just picks which kernel to boot. also, there's no "single" option. i tried doing the same thing with my boot floppy but was unsuccessful.
my only goal is to again have access to my files via command line. as it stands now, i can't even log in. the kernel boots fine until the very end when it hangs. i know if i could change it to boot using "runlevel 3" i'd be ok. however, if i could do that it would mean i have access to my files.
anymore ideas?
thanks,
krust
btw, Slackware is downloaded and i'm tempted to just blow RH away and cut my losses.
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