[Bug 623887] [NEW] Errors in /etc configuration may make system unbootable, even in recovery mode

[Curt Sampson]

Public bug reported:

(I'm reporting this against the kernel as per the instructions in the
"finding the right package" help page, as it says I should do this if
the bug makes the system unbootable even in recovery mode.)

Certain configuration errors will render the system unbootable, even in
recovery mode, and even when giving "emergency" on the kernel command
line, forcing you to boot from other media in order to try to resolve
the problem. Further, these errors tend to be very hard to diagnose,
since typically there are no error messages; the boot simply halts after
an fsck of the root filesystem, though the machine can be cleanly shut
down with Ctrl-Alt-Del.

(One way to debug a problem like this, if you've been using etckeeper
since before the problem occurred, is to boot with external media, mount
the root filesystem of the broken machine, and move around from commit
to commit trying to find which one broke the system.)

Configuration errors that have put me in this state include syntax or
other errors in /etc/network/interfaces and a line in /etc/fstab without
"noauto" when the drive it was trying to mount was not connected.

This is on 10.04 server with the latest updates as of the date of this
bug report.

** Affects: linux (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: boot rc

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Errors in /etc configuration may make system unbootable, even in recovery mode
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/623887
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