I made another mistake.

I thought I successfully mounted an external hard drive. But when I change /etc/fstab to make the mount permanent, I made a mistake in the 5th and 6th column (dump and fsck options). Now my computer doesn't want to go to the user-friendly thingy but wants "repair".

How can I edit /etc/fstab in the command-line window?

I put this wrong line in the /etc/fstab and I want to change it. How?

/dev/sdb1 /media/mynewdrive ext3 rw,acl,user_xattr 1 4

How can I edit? Thanks in advance.

I was able to enter the editing mode in the command-line window (black one).

I change the dumb and fsck options from 1 4 to 0 2.

How do I exit this /etc/fstab file to go back to the root directory?

Please Help!

That entirely depends on what editor you are using. How did you enter what you call "the editing mode"? What did you write?

Hi,

I got it!

To enter the file, I use vi editor:

# vi /etc/fstab

It enters the file. I was able to change column 5 and 6, i.e., 1 and 4 by putting the cursor under the number [4], hitting 'r' from keyboard and then change the number into [0] and so forth.

/dev/sdb1 /media/mynewdrive ext3 rw,acl,user_xattr 1 4

so this line change into:

/dev/sdb1 /media/mynewdrive ext3 rw,acl,user_xattr 0 0

then I was able to exit this /etc/fstab by typing ":x". This will save and exit the file.

In the process I created a lot of files:
/etc/.fstab.swp
/etc/.fstab.swj
/etc/.fstab.swl
/etc/.fstab.swm
/etc/.fstab.swn
/etc/.fstab.swo

so I delete the duplicate files one by one by:

# rm /etc/.fstab.sw* (do this command in all the duplicate files)

I check the revised file by this command:

# cat /etc/fstab

and it gives me the edited version.

# exit (Reboot the computer)