/etc/fstab corrupt - cannot boot

[Ian Lochray]

My /etc/fstab has been messed up. The "/" entry is wrong. My server will not boot up because of this. It goes into single-user mode with / mounted read-only.
I know what to change to fix the fstab but how can I edit it when the file system is read-only?

[Steven Schweda]

Mount "/" manually (read-write) in
single-user mode?

Boot from a CD (escape from the usual OS
installation as soon as possible, create a
mount point where you can ("mkdir /tmp/a"?)
and mount the normal "/" file syatem
manually there)?

[Ivan Ferreira]

You can use:

mount -u -o rw /

[Steven Schweda]

> mount -u -o rw /

But if

> The "/" entry is wrong

then you may need to specify a complete
parameter set in the "mount" command, no?

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

Probably yes, in that case would be:

mount -u -o rw root_domain#root /

[Venkatesh BL]

1) Boot to single-user mode
2) Manual mount the root file-system.
3) Correct the fstab file.
4) Switch to multi-user mode.

[Kapil Jha]

Venketesh,
I think as "/" entry is currupted boot in single usermode will not work
>>>bott -fl s

we will have to boot from CD as stevan said.
and then fix fstab.
Gurus,
Please stop me if m wrong.

BR,
Kapil

[Steven Schweda]

> I think as "/" entry is currupted boot in
> single usermode will not work

But he said:

> It goes into single-user mode with /
> mounted read-only.

Apparently something is wrong with something,
but we can't see /etc/fstab, so we don't know
what, if anything, is actually wrong with it.
However, I'm willing (for now) to believe
that the system did boot into single-user
mode.

[Venkatesh BL]

I have seen instances where, single user mode boot has shown '/' mounted by 'root_device' (RO mode).

[Kapil Jha]

Thanks Stevan ,
I missed that line , Its bad :(
Well I think ur solution will work for sure.
And if Ian is using LSM in this system then he will have to boot from CD
start LSM manually
edit fstab
reboot.

BR,
Kapil

[Ian Lochray]

mount -u -o rw root_domain#root /
That did the job. I was then able to edit the fstab and boot into multi-user mode.
Thanks for all the help.