Hello my friends!

I am facing a new problem. I am starting to take problems as a way of learning. Learning from your advices and tips!

This was what I made:

Yesterday, I modified my monitor settings through nVidia gui settings (I modified frequency to 1280x1024 and 60hz which are the recommeded settings for my display). Of course, before saving new settings I made a backup copy of my xorg.conf to avoid any problem.

I modified inittab to start directly into X (4 instead of 3).
Today, when I turned on my computer, it stopped booting at the following line:

"Starting up X11 session manager"

So, I can't start my system which is a full slackware 12.1 system. No dual boot, no win. Just Slackware.

How can I be able to go back to my old xorg.conf to restore my system? As I don't have access to command line, I don't know what to do.

Another thing I am noticing now is that booting into command line is better than directly into X. That way, you can enter commands if X doesn't start. Am I right?


Thanks!
Glore2002.-

Boot into single user mode, fix it, and then reboot:

To boot into single user mode, you need to add a boot option manually while in grub/lilo

While in grub/lilo, you be able to just start typing or press 'a' to add to boot line, but if not, look for options menu.

On boot options line, add a '1' to it. That should start you in single user mode.

I think tty6 is available in runlevel 4
(try to hit [ctrl+alt+F6] for command line access)
Or boot into single user mode as CRC123 suggested

Thanks guys!

Slackware works perfectly again. What I did was to press TAB for LILO prompt and then I entered "Slackware 1" (Slackware is the name I give to my boot option".

How could I add an option to LILO to be able to choose single user as a LILO menu option when computer starts?


Thanks again,
Glore2002.-

I think you have to edit lilo.conf and copy the lines used to boot Slackware,
change the label name for single user mode and add:
append = "1"

Then lilo will add 1 to the kernel boot options, run lilo to take the change in account

Hi,

You could create a separate stanza within your '/etc/lilo.conf' file that has the single option;

This is from a Slackware 12 server of mine. When and if I have to perform maintenance I have the option to go single.

Just add this type of stanza to your current '/etc/lilo.conf' file but make sure to run 'lilo' again.

FYI; 'Ten boot time option you should know about'

This link and others are available from 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

I've finally added my "Single" stanza.

I am using Slackware 12.1.

append "1" works fine.

append "single" doesn't.

Thanks for such a valuable help.

Glore2002.-

With respect to your current issue, if you have the basic stock Slackware /etc/inittab, then console 6 should be available to you when you boot into runlevel 4. When X hangs because of the modifications you made to xorg.conf, as mentioned, press Ctrl-Alt-F6 to toggle to console 6.

For people who like booting mostly into runlevel 4, I like to recommend people create two bootloader options: one for runlevel 3 and one for runlevel 4. When problems arise with booting into runlevel 4, in addition to the console 6 option, the user then has the alternative to boot the system into runlevel 3 to perform some troubleshooting. Try the following:

Configuring Slackware for a GUI and a Command Line Startup

The mini how-to applies to GRUB, but the principles are the same for Lilo.

For myself I prefer to boot into runlevel 3 for the reason you have discovered --- easier troubleshooting. However, if I there were multiple users on this box, I would use runlevel 4 as the default to provide a login manager because most users freak out with a command line login.

To avoid issues as you discovered, I create optional xorg.conf files. I use the proprietary nvidia drivers and I have a two backups for my xorg.conf: 1) xorg.conf.bak and 2) xorg.conf.nvidia. I also have configured the standard nv drivers too. Therefore I also have an xorg.conf.nv file in /etc/X11. If I should botch an xorg.conf modification attempt, I can copy the original xorg.conf.nvidia or xorg.conf.bak to xorg.conf and recover my system. Should I try to update the proprietary nvidia drivers and the install fails, I can temporarily copy xorg.conf.nv to xorg.conf and then I have a way to start X while I troubleshoot, which often includes using a web browser to surf the web.

Another nice trick to know is the stock Slackware 12.1 kernels are compiled with the kernal "magic" keys installed. In a hard lockup situation, a user can press and hold Alt-SysReq, while sequentially pressing the r, k, e, i, s, u, and b keys. This will provide a safe way to reboot the box when the usual normal recovery methods fail.

Hi,
How did you pass the 'single' parameter?

In order to show how I passed the parameter, I will show my xorg.conf.

There, instead of "append = 1", I wrote "append = single".
That way (maybe I did something wrong), single option didn't work.
Thanks,
Glore2002.-

Nice tip Woodsman but, What should I add to my lilo.conf to be able to boot with init 3?
What follows is showing the stanza I've started to add to lilo.conf but I don't know what to add to boot into level 3.
Thanks again,
Glore2002.-

I don't use lilo. Therefore be sure to have somebody verify my educated guess!

Add the following text to your lilo configuration. The text is a copy of what you posted but notice the differences I highlighted in red:

# Slackware init4 bootable partition begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-custom
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
root = /dev/sda2
label = init4
read-only
append="init 4"
# Slackware init4 bootable partition ends

You'll then have both options available.

Because no runlevel is listed in your default lilo boot option (init 3), /etc/inittab then will determine the runlevel when lilo boots with your default boot option. Therefore to boot into runlevel 4 --- and override inittab without editing inittab, you need to add that option in lilo.conf. According to the lilo.conf man page, the append option should provide what you need.

Thanks Woodsman for your help! LILO works fine now with init3 option included!


Glore2002.-

I think you are having too much fun!