linux gurus, need help

[exciv2000]

I fux0red up my linux machine again. This time I went into the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file and added some lines. One was to smbmount some drives. Another was to start setiathome, and yet another was to start the counter-strike server. Well the smbmount didn't work, but at least it kept booting... next it went to the setiathome, and it runs that process and only that process and does not continue booting... how do I get into that file and edit it to comment out both the seti and counter-strike lines before the boot process even sees it?

Is there a better way within xwindows (after it's already started) to automatically start a process (among the many processes) instead of typing it manually into the console every time??

[john]

Did you make a boot floppy when you loaded linux?

[exciv2000]

I think so, but my floppy drive is messed up... I think I'll probably have to swap it with another drive to get it to work. Why, what do I do with the floppy?

[booms]

You should be able to get to an Emergency Console by booting from the RH Install CD. From there, if you have to manually mount filesystems, do that, then go delete the offending entries out of that file.

Sorry for being vague-- I've never needed to use the 'Emergency Console' for anything other than fscking filesystems, but that's all you should need to do in theory.

- Brandon

(Sair GNU/Linux Certified Professional.. woo or something)

[justin]

Originally posted by exciv2000
I fux0red up my linux machine again. This time I went into the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file and added some lines. One was to smbmount some drives. Another was to start setiathome, and yet another was to start the counter-strike server. Well the smbmount didn't work, but at least it kept booting... next it went to the setiathome, and it runs that process and only that process and does not continue booting... how do I get into that file and edit it to comment out both the seti and counter-strike lines before the boot process even sees it?

Is there a better way within xwindows (after it's already started) to automatically start a process (among the many processes) instead of typing it manually into the console every time??

The smbmounts won't break things, I do that too. The CS server shouldn't either cause I've done that before in teh past as well. I don't know how the seti startup could mess things up though because I have never used it.

If it is just hanging when it's trying to start rc.local things then the network should be up already since that stuff starts before rc.local things do. You may want to try and ssh into the box when it's "hung" to see if you can kill off the seti process.

Do you use LILO to boot? What version and distro is it? Some distrobutions, older redhat in particular, had a "feature" that would let you login in single user mode without a root password. To do that you can just type "linux single" at the LILO prompt. Or, like already mentioned you can boot to the recovery CD.

There are quite a few ways to get around this, you shouldn't have to reinstall or boot off another disk or anything. A boot floppy though would make it really easy :)

Justin

[justin]

Originally posted by exciv2000
I think so, but my floppy drive is messed up... I think I'll probably have to swap it with another drive to get it to work. Why, what do I do with the floppy?

The floppy boot disk will load the kernel from the floppy and not from what is on the disk in the /boot partition. It also should not process your rc.local and you can then go back and edit it so you can boot normally...

Justin