Linux Desktop Hacks

8

|

Chapter 1, Booting Linux

#3 Bypass the Boot Manager

HACK

Bypassing the Installer

The key to restoring your sanity when confronted with a broken kernel is to

use the installation disk you used to install Linux on your computer in the

first place. Every installation disk boots a generic kernel from the CD-ROM

to perform the installation routine. Many of the install disks for distribu-

tions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Mandrake, Red Hat, and others include a

slim-line shell called BusyBox that you can use to sneak behind the installer

and fix your system.

When you run the CD-ROM-based installation program, nothing on your

hard disk is affected until you get to the partitioning part of the program.

Just before this section, jump to another virtual terminal by pressing Ctrl-

Alt-F(n) (such as Ctrl-Alt-F2). If you are installing Linux on a Mac, this can

be a little trickier, because you need to press the Apple Option Key-F(n)-

F(n). These key combinations switch you to a blank screen where you see a

root shell. This shell is a substantially cut-down version of a normal shell,

but it has the essential commands to navigate directories, mount disks, and

use an editor to change files.

Mounting Disks

Before you can fix the bootloader, you need to identify the problem that is

preventing your system from booting. In many cases, the problem occurs

because the kernel files in /boot do not have the same name/location ...