One of the advantages of single-user mode is that you do not need a boot diskette or CD-ROM; however, it does not give you the option to mount the file systems as read-only or not mount them at all.
In single-user mode, your computer boots to runlevel 1. Your local file systems are mounted, but your network is not activated. You have a usable system maintenance shell. Unlike rescue mode, single-user mode automatically tries to mount your file system; do not use single-user mode if your file system can not be mounted successfully. You can not use single-user mode if the runlevel 1 configuration on your system is corrupted.
If your system boots, but does not allow you to log in when it has completed booting, try single-user mode.
If you are using GRUB, use the following steps to boot into single-user mode:
If you have a GRUB password configured, type p and enter the password.
Select Red Hat Linux with the version of the kernel that you wish to boot and type e for edit. You will be presented with a list of items in the configuration file for the title you have selected.
Select the line that starts with kernel and type e to edit the line.
Go to the end of the line and type single
as a separate word (press the
Back at the GRUB screen, type b to boot into single-user mode.
If you are using LILO, at the LILO boot prompt (if you are using the
graphical LILO, you must press
linux single |