Arch Linux

KingJulien

Member

Registered: 2010-03-31

Posts: 2

Entering command line before X starts

I stupidly forgot to put HAL in my dameons array to start on boot, so when X starts I've no keyboard or mouse. *facepalm* How can I stop X starting and get to a console when booting up so I can fix rc.conf from the command line?  I tried editing it from a LiveCD but got problems with permissions. Thanks for any help!

evr

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

Registered: 2009-01-23

Posts: 554

Re: Entering command line before X starts

append a "3" to the kernel line in grub before it boots up.  it should then boot in non-graphical mode

Misfit138

Misfit Emeritus

From: USA

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 4,189

Re: Entering command line before X starts

If you are using runlevel 5 (inittab method of running your DM), you can append '3' to your kernel line. If you are using runlevel 3 and running your DM as a daemon, you'll probably have to workaround by booting into runlevel 1 by appending '1' to the end of your GRUB kernel line.

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Slurp53

Member

Registered: 2010-03-31

Posts: 20

Re: Entering command line before X starts

use Knoppix Live CD/DVD.  From a root terminal mount the partition and change the file.  Shouldn't have any permissions problems.

KingJulien

Member

Registered: 2010-03-31

Posts: 2

Re: Entering command line before X starts

I appended 3 to the kernel but was running my DM as a daemon so that didn't help. I screwed my head back on and realised to use a Puppy LiveCD, mounted the partition as root and that let me save the edit to rc.conf. Thanks for the help guys.