From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 5 07:16:30 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C49BB16A4CE for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2004 07:16:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3662B43D1F for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2004 07:16:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id i25FGQZ25312; Fri, 5 Mar 2004 10:16:26 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200403051516.i25FGQZ25312@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: joepok@ninestar.com (Joe Pokupec) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 10:16:26 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <0HU3000VYHSO4G@mmp-3.gci.net> from "Joe Pokupec" at Mar 04, 2004 11:48:05 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: Freebsd-Questions Subject: Re: SIngle User Mode Help X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 15:16:30 -0000 > > Hey Guys, > > I'm constantly botching up my fstab file and the system will fail to boot > correctly. I've learned to create a working fstab and call is fstab.orig > which I can overwrite the botched file if I end up in Single User Mode... You're right to make a copy before tinkering. > I can't find any info on Single User Mode to help me: > > - I use mount -u / to mount the filesystem as read/write That is correct, but, of course, it only gets the root (/) filesystem mounted. You may need stuff on other ones, especially /usr. Try doing fsck /usr mount /usr or mount /dev/d0s1f /usr or whatever slice and partition you have /usr on > - I cannot access any editors like vi or pico (my personal) favorite once in > single user mode... Why? Probably they are in the /usr file system. I usually put a copy of vi in /bin which should stay in root and not be farmed out somewhere. Then I can get at it when things are all bollixed up. > - I can't use the locate command, because the /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb > script is not accessible Also, it is /usr which isn't mounted. > - I can't su because this is not a recognized command That is also in /usr, but you don't need it because in single user mode you are already root. > Can anyone shed any light on how I can actually edit (preferably using pico) > my fstab file once I'm in "botch" mode? Learn vi for use in such circumstances or maybe ee. You don't want to have to depend on having one of those bloatware editors working when you have problems in single user. Light's above, ////jerry > > Thanks > > Joe >