On 06/25/2015 at 08:33 AM, The Wanderer wrote: > On 06/25/2015 at 07:54 AM, Matthijs Wensveen wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I'm running unstable / sid. Yesterday, I suddenly started booting >> into emergency mode and I'm unsure why. I had a hang the day >> before, right after a apt-get dist-upgrade, so it might be either >> one of those, or something else altogether. >> >> Booting into emergency mode doesn't help me, as I can neither >> login without a root password, nor continue to default mode with >> Ctrl-D because that just throws me back into emergency mode. > > Why don't you have the root password? Is this not your system, but > just one you've been given for ordinary use? Actually, even if you don't have it, now that I think about it there's a way for you to get it - given that you have physical access and the ability to boot to external media, in this case a LiveCD. The procedure is: >> I'm rather stuck on how to analyze the situation. I can mount and >> even chroot into the '/' partition from a live CD (LMDE 2) and >> even run apt-get update && apt-get upgrade, but the boot problem >> persists. I can also boot with init=/bin/sh, but I don't know what >> to look for. >> >> Any ideas on what I should try? Any help is much appreciated. > > When booted from a LiveCD or with a different init, check to see > what information may have made it into logs from the previous failed > boot attempts. Boot from a LiveCD. Make sure that, in the LiveCD environment, you're running as root (user id 1). chroot to the main system. Use passwd, or some similar tool, to set the password for the current user - that is, for root. Because you're chrooted to the non-LiveCD system, the change will be applied there. Reboot into the main system, and enter the new root password at the emergency-mode prompt. Investigate as normal. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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