Ubuntu fstab – How to Edit /etc/fstab When System Boots to Read-Only File System

fstabUbuntu

I'm on Ubuntu 14.04.

I pasted something incorrect (from a tutorial) into my /etc/fstab file. As a result, the root file system will not mount when the machine boots up.

I know what needs to be fixed in /etc/fstab, but I cannot save the file (or any file) because the system boots as read only.

As root, I tried:

mount -o remount,rw /

to no avail. The error message cited the section of bad options that I pasted into /etc/fstab.

I read some stuff about booting into single user mode by adding 'single' to the end of the kernel parameter. I can't seem to find the kernel parameter. On the grub menu, I highlight Ubuntu and press 'e' which brings up a file with some sort of configuration, but there is no 'kernel' parameter to be found.

I'm relatively new to linux. Can anyone help me figure out a way to fix my /etc/fstab file so that Ubuntu will boot normally?

Best Answer

The way you have tried the mount command still uses the information from /etc/fstab.

Try the following version and it should work independent of the contents of /etc/fstab:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdb6 /

Note: Instead of /dev/sdb6, use whatever device is valid for your drive.

Related Question