Arch Linux

Shadowmeph

Member

From: West Coast Canada

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 208

How do I login to shell from boot?

I messed up my xorg.conf in such a way that I cannot get to shell. when I boot it goes to grub then after about a min of rolling through its usually things instead of going to desktop I get a blank screen if I Do a crtl alt backspace it does nothing is there a command I can hit so it goes dir to shell or somewhere so I can login as root and fix this?

my0pic

Member

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 206

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

have you tried ctl alt f1 to get a tty screen?

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,484

Website

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

When you are at grub, hit "e" to edit your menu entry.  Change "ro 5" to "ro 3".  The will boot to the shell.

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!

Shadowmeph

Member

From: West Coast Canada

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 208

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

When you are at grub, hit "e" to edit your menu entry.  Change "ro 5" to "ro 3".  The will boot to the shell.

hmm I will try that thanks

Shadowmeph

Member

From: West Coast Canada

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 208

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

I tried control alt F1 that doesn't work I also hit e to edit grub which gave me a screen that started with "root (hd ) " there wasn't any ro in there at all

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,484

Website

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

Just to clarify, the kernel line in your grub entry should look something like "kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro".  You can add a 3 at the end of it.  Are you starting a login manager as a daemon?  I'm not sure if that will work if you are. 

The other option is to boot from the install CD or a live CD and mount your hard drive and adjust the xorg file.

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!

Shadowmeph

Member

From: West Coast Canada

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 208

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

Just to clarify, the kernel line in your grub entry should look something like "kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro".  You can add a 3 at the end of it.  Are you starting a login manager as a daemon?  I'm not sure if that will work if you are. 

The other option is to boot from the install CD or a live CD and mount your hard drive and adjust the xorg file.

I am using the Ubuntu live cd but I am not sure how to mount the drive ( I know I know I should know this   )

Stythys

Member

From: SF Bay Area

Registered: 2008-05-18

Posts: 878

Website

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

you can mount it by editing you /etc/fstab file. so just add a line similar to the following:

/dev/sda2     /media sda2     ext3     defaults     0     0

The first argument is the hard drive you want to mount. To find out what it's called you can just open gparted.
The second is the mount point. I like to put it in media because it'll automatically show on the desktop and such. make sure to create the directory first.
The third is your filesystem. Again, you can find out with gparted. It's probably ext3.
The fourth you don't really need to concern yourself about...just put defaults.
Same for the fifth...just put two zeros here and you'll be fine.

After this run the command 'sudo mount /dev/sda2' and it should mount.

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[home page] -- [code / configs]

"Once you go Arch, you must remain there for life or else Allan will track you down and break you."
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Shadowmeph

Member

From: West Coast Canada

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 208

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

ok I figured it all out I am back on my Arch I just changed the driver ( in xorg.conf) from fglrx to vesa and I was able to boot back in

Zepp

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-25

Posts: 334

Website

Re: How do I login to shell from boot?

you can mount it by editing you /etc/fstab file. so just add a line similar to the following:

/dev/sda2     /media sda2     ext3     defaults     0     0

The first argument is the hard drive you want to mount. To find out what it's called you can just open gparted.
The second is the mount point. I like to put it in media because it'll automatically show on the desktop and such. make sure to create the directory first.
The third is your filesystem. Again, you can find out with gparted. It's probably ext3.
The fourth you don't really need to concern yourself about...just put defaults.
Same for the fifth...just put two zeros here and you'll be fine.

After this run the command 'sudo mount /dev/sda2' and it should mount.

If it's a live cd I'd just use mount and not bother adding to fstab first.