I'm trying to boot into emergency mode but i'm having no joy.

I can boot to single user mode (by adding s or single at the end of the kernel line in grub) and I can also boot to init=/bin/sh mode by using the same method, but emergency is not working.

Any ideas?

I'm using RHEL6 x64

I don't actually have a real problem, I'm just running through some training.

TIA

Put in a RHEL installation disk, boot from the CD-ROM - at the boot: prompt don't hit enter.

Type:
And hit enter - this will bring you into rescue mode and allow you to chroot into the *real* OS. Normally with the following command.

that's fine, but it's not what I was looking for.

Aside from booting into init 1; I have no clue what you're trying to accomplish, could you elaborate in detail?

See this http://www.redhat.com/archives/redha.../msg02019.html or this http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...escuemode.html (end of document)

TIA

That's what it sounds like to me.

that is what I did, yet it did(does) not work.

If I append single or s, it boots in single user mode
If I append init=/bin/sh, it boots in bin/sh mode (not sure what it is called)
if I append emergency, RHEL boots up normally.

I've probably misspelt emergency or something.

RHEL6 does not have emergency mode anymore. It has been dropped.

On RHEL5, emergency just started init, and a shell, but did not process rc.sysinit.

To get the same effect, use init=/bin/bash.

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Thanks

I guess, RH have not updated the documentation yet.

Rhel6 emergency mode is still a thing. while the init=/bin/bash access method is very much the same, the emergency kernel argument is fully operational. in RHEL6.1 there was a bug that broke that functionality, but in rhel 6.2 and above, it's back up and functioning. Also remember that you can init into any shell loaded on the system in the event that bash is broken or lost.

(to read the documentation, visit http://red.ht/14EnInm)

"In emergency mode, you are booted into the most minimal environment possible. The root file system is mounted read-only and almost nothing is set up. The main advantage of emergency mode over single-user mode is that the init files are not loaded. If init is corrupted or not working, you can still mount file systems to recover data that could be lost during a re-installation.
To boot into emergency mode, use the same method as described for single-user mode in Section 36.1.3, “Booting into Single-User Mode” with one exception, replace the keyword single with the keyword emergency."

In RHEL v6, this can be achieved by booting in from RHEL install DVD

1. Boot from RHEL install DVD
2. Select 'Rescue Installed System'
3. Select 'Local CD/DVD'
4. Select 'Network interface'# exit
5. Select read only or read write
6. Start shell

At this point, either you can mount any partition/filesystem for backup, or you can change root(/) by giving chroot command
To return to previous root(/)

Just realized the post is more than 2 years old...

I only posted because the information above is wrong lol. And technically what you're suggesting is Rescue Mode. To reach Emergency Mode without using the Anaconda installer via an installation media (disk, iso, PXE boot) you can just add the kernel argument "emergency" in RHEL 6.2 or higher, or any version of RHEL5 or below. There was a bug that broke that functionality in 6.0 and 6.1. In those versions, it would be necessary to add the kernel argument init=/bin/bash (or any other shell installed on the system such as CSH [which comes packaged on most RHEL systems], KSH or ZSH).