[NTLUG:Discuss] Redhat up2date crash

[kbrannen@gte.net]

Paul Drew wrote:
> Howdy Guys,
...
> Upon boot I noticed that it hangs on the part where it is trying to 
> samba mount. I did recently put some entries into the fstab, and I am 
> pretty sure they were ok, but it seems to hang there for a bit. (30 
> minutes or so). Then it gives some errors, and passes it up, and gives 
> me my Gnome login screen. No matter what login I try to use, I cannot 
> log in. I can't login as myself, my wife, root, or any other username I 
> have on the box. I know that the passwords SHOULD be correct too. I even 
> tried no password for them all and root with no success.
> 
> Since I can't login, I don't know what to do. I think more than just 
> user permissions may have gotten hosed with the crash, but I am so new I 
> am not sure. Any suggestion? Has anyone seen anything like this before?
...

Did you make a rescue boot floppy?  If so, try booting with that, them mount 
the root partition to /mnt, and you can edit /mnt/etc/fstab or any other file 
you think will help.  If you didn't make a boot floppy, try booting with the 
install CD; there should be a "rescue" option mapped to one of the function 
keys, or at least there used to be in the 7.x series.

This should reinforce the point that security is not complete without physical 
security too. :-)

HTH,
Kevin