[solved] Edited fstab, rebooted, Cannot access to console, the root account is locked

rchauvin

Hi,

Still learning and made the mistake of changing fstab. Running Ubilinux.
When booted gets stuck in a loop of "Cannot access console, the root account is locked. Press Enter to continue."

My guess is I need to access the fstab file and remove the changes but how can I do this with no access to the console?

ccalde

Hi @rchauvin ,

Could you access to any console pressing Ctrl+Alt+F4 (F4 or any other F key)?

rchauvin

I ended up by reinstalling Ubilinux, and lost a few days of work
I strongly recommend to not play with the fstab file.

Under Ubuntu it is possible to fix the issue by booting from the live USB, mounting the internal drive in the live session, navigate to the fstab file and debug the file. Unfortunately, there is no Ubilinux live USB as far as I know.

ccalde

Hi @rchauvin ,

Thanks for the update.

What a petty you were to reinstall everything.
You are right, Ubilinux has automatic and manual installation. However, Ubilinux live USB is not supported.

Sil

Hello, the same happened to me.

But it is not necessary to reinstall Ublinux.

It is sufficient that you have a Debian live USB (even the netinst distribution works well because it has all the tools you need).

Go to "advanced options" and the select "rescue mode". Follow all the steps untile you are asked to mount a specific partition as boot partition. If you properly select the partition where you have your file, the installer program allows you to choose to open a shell in that partition. You can then browse the files and select your proper /etc/fstab file and modify it to default (or restore a backup file which is always a good idea to have when you modify the_ fstab_ file). After that, close the shell and reboot the board unplugging the usb key with the live OS.

In this way you do not lose anything already configured on your system.

Silvano