Fedora Linux

Using Rescue Mode on an Installation Disc

The Fedora Core installation DVD—or disc 1 of the CD set—can be used to boot into a rescue mode, which lets you access a Fedora system installed on a hard disk without booting from that hard disk. This can be used to recover from many types of system failure or badly misconfigured startup scripts.

How Do I Do That?

Inset your Fedora installation disc (DVD or CD 1) into the system and boot from it. At the boot prompt, enter:

boot: linux rescue

You will be presented with the standard language and keyboard menus (see Figures 1-5 and 1-6 in Chapter 1), and then the question shown in Figure 10-26 will be displayed.

Figure 10-26. Network interface question

If you want to be able to transfer files to and from the system (for example, to back up critical data), answer Yes; otherwise, answer No. If you answer Yes, the standard network configuration dialog will appear, enabling you to select DHCP network configuration or manually enter the network details.

Figure 10-27 shows the next screen, which offers to mount your hard disk directories for you. If you need to access files on your hard disk, select Continue; if you need to access files on your hard disk but want to avoid the possibility of damaging any files, select Read-Only; and if you do not want to mount the hard disk filesystems (for example, because you want to work on the filesystems first, ...