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.
If your system boots, but does not allow you to log in when it has completed booting, try single-user mode.
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.
On an x86 system using GRUB as the boot loader, 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 Enterprise Linux with the version of the kernel that you wish to boot and type a to append 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.
On an x86 system using LILO as the boot loader, at the LILO boot prompt
(if you are using the graphical LILO, you must press
linux single |
For all other platforms, specify single as a kernel parameter at the boot prompt.