Hosed fstab, won't boot how to edit?

Robert Moskowitz rgm at htt-consult.com
Tue Jan 20 21:18:13 UTC 2009


Ron Siven wrote:
> Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>> Ron Siven wrote:
>>> Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>>>> So I mistyped noatime in /etc/fstab; wished there was a way to test 
>>>> this first!
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, since this is my ASUS Eee and my swap is on the SD card, by 
>>>> pulling the SD card the boot halts and puts me into Repair 
>>>> Filesystem mode.
>>>>
>>>> Thing is /etx fstab is readonly. vi fstab won't let me save the file.
>>>>
>>>> I really don't want to do a complete reinstall yet. I want to buy a 
>>>> 8Gb SD card first (and next time I am putting /usr on the SD card). 
>>>> So how can I edit this?
>>>>
>>>>
>>> If this is the same as rescue mode booting from the CD/DVD, the file 
>>> system is mounted to /mnt/sysimage. To get root access, use chroot 
>>> /mnt/sysimage. Then use vim to edit /etc/fstab 
>> The prompt is:
>>
>> (Repair filesystem) n #
>>
>> Where n is a command number it seems. I had to provide the root 
>> password to get into this mode.
>>
>> As for 'chroot /mnt/sysimage', I get:
>>
>> chroot: cannot change root directory to /mnt/sysimage: No such file 
>> or directory
>>
>>
>
> Do you have the CD/DVD that you installed from to boot with? From 
> there you can specify rescue mode and use the method I described above. 

I am on the road (IEEE 802.11 meeting in LA) and do not even have a USB 
CD drive... Perhaps I can find one here.





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