edited /etc/fstab now the desktop doesn't come up

Birdman48 · 08-21-2014, 02:18 PM

I must have done something wrong when I edited /etc/fstab. I was trying to get a second hard drive to mount automatically so I added a line to /etc/fstab per instructions here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/99548...nal-hard-drive . Now my desktop won't come up.

szboardstretcher · 08-21-2014, 02:19 PM

If an entry in fstab isn't marked noauto, it can hang the system. You need to make sure that your mount command works before you add it to fstab.

So, for now, boot into single user mode, and comment out the entry in fstab.

Birdman48 · 08-21-2014, 02:27 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. How do I boot into single user mode?

John VV · 08-21-2014, 02:32 PM

the instructions are different for grub 1 or 2

for 2
during the 3 sec countdown in the preboot ( select the kernel to boot into)
hit the " e" button

then use the down arrow key to navigate to the kernel line in the grub.conf that pops up
ad a blank space and a 1 to the end of the kernel line
and hit f10

Birdman48 · 08-21-2014, 02:45 PM

so I have a choice at startup: openSuse 13.1 or Advanced Options for openSuse 13.1. I select openSuse 13.1 and then hit "e". I see black screen that says GNU GRUB version 2 and under that is what looks like a script or file with "setparams openSuse..." Is this the kernel line that I add a space and a 1 at the end? All the way at the end of this file?

Birdman48 · 08-21-2014, 03:38 PM

This is starting to look like another thread. I'm using openSuse 13.1. GRUB doesn't present the menu list. There is a list of commands, one of which I can append "single" to the end and then F10 to boot but this isn't working either.

Birdman48 · 08-21-2014, 10:44 PM

ok its fixed. just for the record the corrupted fstab was in sda2. navigating to /etc I then found it. You couldn't just go vi /etc/fstab.

Thanks for all the help!