Hi,
I had installed Red Hat Linux AS4 some time back and was logged in as root. All of a sudden, I couldn't perform any operations as the error came up as 'need to be logged in as root to perform the operation'.

After rebooting, it is unable to find /etc/inittab file because of which Linux doesn't come up.

I went into Linux rescue mode and tried creating the above file, but on reboot, it can't find the file again.

What do I do to fix this problem without needing to reinstall?

Also, during the rescue mode operation, I get the message that 'No Linux partititions could be found' and there is no directory /mnt/sysimage.

Does this mean my file system is corrupted?

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Linux General Forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Welcome to LQ. If files are not being found, then it could definitely be some sort of corruption on your filesystem or disk failure. Try loading a live distro and checking your filesystem using fsck.