On 09/06/2023 at 01:27, tomas k wrote:
I'm on a different system than the problem one. For years I have had to boot knoppix and run a chroot to change a password I've forgotten, because I use a separate usr partition, and rescue thinks it's the root directory. Butr without etc it's not going to work.
Rescue mode does not "think" anything about any partition. It is up to the user to select the proper root partition, although I admit this might be improved by providing more information about available partitions to the user.
With /usr-merged layout (default since buster IIRC), a separate /usr must be mounted before running any program. The initramfs mounts a separate /usr before running init, but the installer rescue mode did not before running a shell. This feature has been added to bookworm installer (rescue 1.86) but not backported to bullseye installer AFAIK.
My suggestion is, if a user wants a separate usr, to place a hidden flag file in root, the presence of which informs the system to mount THAT partition AND look in /etc/fstab, and mount usr.
/etc/fstab already exists in the root filesystem, so no need to create a flag file.