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The system is Redhat Linux 7.1. When started, it asked me to enter run level from keyboard. No run levels worked except S, which brought me to the single-user mode. I found that nothing was in etc/inittab file. What is going on? How can I fix it? Your help is highly appreciated.
Must be some strange installation error. I've put my standard-issue RH7.1 inittab avail. for download at ftp://dolda2000.cjb.net/pub/inittab. Don't spend it all in one place.
Thanks. But, by entering S runlevel, the system is in a read-only mode and networking is not available either. How could I change the content of inittab file? By the way, this problem happened after about 10 months of working properly.
Remount your root fs read/write by doing "mount -o remount,rw /" to alter inittab, then get it over a floppy from a connected computer.
It seems almost too strange that inittab would be truncated just all of a sudden. If it were windows it wouldn't surprise me for a second, but it isn't windows though... Are you sure that you didn't do anything strange?
Thanks for your response. I am pretty sure that I didn't do anything strange. I consulted with some Linux people and they didn't encounter such a strange matter either. I am gonna try to remount my root fs, but I don't think it will work. In S runlevel, there is no file system mounted, there is nothing in the directory of /root, /home, /proc and network is not working either. Worst of all, S runlevel is the only runlevel I can enter. The inittab is not truncated. The content of it is completely gone. Strangest thing in my whole life.
It will work; a root filesystem must always be mounted, or there would be no files.
Truncated means that the contents of the file have been deleted, but the file itself is left. I don't know a better word for it.
Btw., is /root a directory of your own, or did you mean /boot?
And one more thing: install win98 on your machine and you'll soon encounter stranger things daily. =)
Dolda - truncated is a fine word to use, i just think most people think of truncated as cutting of the end of the file suddenly, implying the first part is still there
Problem solved!
First, mount -o remount, rw /; Then use vi to edit inittab file; Couldn't write to the disk, getting an error message of "no disk space". What the... Finally found out there was a file in /tmp occuping over 400Mb! It was generated at the time the problem started. Remove it, edit inittab, and Linux is fully functional again!
The cause of the appearance of this file is still a mystery. I have windows2000 in the same machine. Is this a possilbe reason?
BTW, /root is a directory of my own and I am among the "most people" in majorwoo's post. Thanks a lot for the help.