Re: can I execute a shell during "booting"?

[George Bonser <grep@shorelink.com>]

On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, john smith wrote:

> hello,
> 
>   I would like to know if there is a way to execute a bash shell or whatever 
> shell during "booting or bootstrapping" of the kernel. i.e. while the kernel 
> is booting. I moved something and the kernel keeps looping and looping 
> trying to find it and it doesnt want to stop it just keeps going and going 
> and going..now if I can execute a shell somehow while it is starting to 
> "boot" ..I am sure I can put it back into place.
> 
> thanks for any advice.

At the 

LILO

prompt on boot press <shift>

You will then get 

LILO boot:

now press <tab>

You will get a list of boot images with the first one listed being the
default. Assuming that Linux is the default listed first, one would type:

LILO boot: Linux init=/bin/bash

Note that the root partition will be mounted read-only at that point and
the /usr partition (if one exists) will not be mounted. You will need to
at the very least:

mount / -o remount,rw

to get write permission on the root partition. You can then change the
root password or whatever you need to do. Let this be a lesson ... if you
have PHYSICAL access to the machine. You can do nearly anything ... beware
of the "restricted" lilo option :)