11.3. Booting into Single-User Mode

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:

  1. If you have a GRUB password configured, type p and enter the password.

  2. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the version of the kernel that you wish to boot and type a to append the line.

  3. Go to the end of the line and type single as a separate word (press the [Spacebar] and then type single). Press [Enter] to exit edit mode.

  4. 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 [Ctrl]-[x] to exit the graphical screen and go to the boot: prompt) type:

linux single

For all other platforms, specify single as a kernel parameter at the boot prompt.