boot question

[warsteiner]

mmmkaaa....

just after lilo, linux begins to load. is there a way to stop the loading using a keyboard combination as to get to a command prompt?

[TheLinuxDuck]

Originally posted by warsteiner:
just after lilo, linux begins to load. is there a way to stop the loading using a keyboard combination as to get to a command prompt?

Are you booting directly into x and you want to boot to the command prompt?

Or, are you just wanting your box to go directly to a CL, instead of asking for a password?

------------------
TheLinuxDuck
I have a belly button.
:wq

[demian]

Originally posted by warsteiner:
mmmkaaa....


just after lilo, linux begins to load. is there a way to stop the loading using a keyboard combination as to get to a command prompt?


Put a delay=N in your /etc/lilo.conf, N being the number of tenth of a second to wait before booting into the default system. Also add a prompt to the file.

[warsteiner]

actually im wanting to skip the load entirely if possible. seems unlikely, but in the event that certain files may have been modified rendering a usual boot to freeze, im looking for a way around the boot to correct a problem.

[ansivirus]

That is why a bootdisk is created during most installs.. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

-ansivirus

[warsteiner]

not exactly. the one i had made booted till it gave a kernal panic try doin a init= thing.

im wondering how to get to a point BEFOR a boot to be able to type at a command prompt, or navigate / edit the directories and files.

[demian]

You can try booting to single user mode but you need a LILO prompt for that. You can't do anything before LILO or any other bootloader starts cause by that time there's just BIOS code running on your machine. If you get a prompt (apparently not so I guess your screwed without a floppy) type <label_of_your_kernel_image> init S. If things are not too much broken you are taken to single user mode where you can try and fix stuff. If this fails the last chance I can think of is at the LILO prompt: <label_of_your_kernel_image> init=/bin/bash this gets you to a bash (wouldn't have guessed huh?). Your root filesystem will be mounted read-only so if you want to change anything do a mount -n -o remount,rw / first. And after the changes do a couple of sync's to make sure it's stored on the disk or remount it read-only before you shutdown.

Good luck