[SOLVED] Revert fstab without live cd

[LivingPharaoh]

Howdy folks,
I ballsed up some support instructions from another thread/issue and now I'm stuck with grub and emergency mode, and pecking at my tiny phone for info.
fstab is corrupt. Thus the boot issue. Live CD takes an hour to boot, then crashes into fallback mode and nothing responds. On top of that, my installation is encrypted so that probably won't even work.

While in emergency mode I have access to command. Seen as I corrupted fstab in terminal, can I fix it there also? The command I was given doesn't apply and gedit gives me:

Code: Select all

Unable to init server: Could not connect: connection refused
(gedit:950): Gtk-WARNING *": 23:49:42:214: cannot open display:

I take it this is because my installation partition isn't mounted at all?

Thanks in advance. None of this is in vain. I locked myself out of my installation 3 times already and it's only been 6 days. I'm learning a lot.

PS: I saw on stack exchange something about adding init=/bin/bash at the end of a kernel something or other and booting, but there's loads of lines on that file and I've no idea where to add it because it's all Greek

[WharfRat]

You don't have an X session so use nano /etc/fstab

When done ctl-o to save it and ctl-x to exit.

[DAMIEN1307]

this might work for you...DAMIEN

at the grub prompt, hit "a" to append options
add init=/bin/bash to the end of the kernel command line and press enter.
The system will boot to a prompt like 'bash-3.2#' enter the following commands at the prompt:

mount -o remount,rw /

vim /etc/fstab


edit the fstab file commenting the errors by adding a # at the beginning of each problematic line, save the file.

reboot by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL


let us know if this works ok.

[LivingPharaoh]

You don't have an X session so use nano /etc/fstab

When done ctl-o to save it and ctl-x to exit.

I'm singing your praises this morning. Thank you. Worked a charm. Now I have to go learn what nano is.

this might work for you...DAMIEN
........
let us know if this works ok.

I cannot attest to whether that worked because I don't know what "the kernal command line" is. That's a big file. A lot going on in there. Does this mean the end of the file or the end of a particular line? Still all new words to me.

Thank you both. Faith strengthened, lessons learned.

[WharfRat]

Now I have to go learn what nano is.

Just enter man nano in the terminal