Can I edit /etc/rc.conf on hard drive from fixit?

[Tom King]

I am fairly new to freebsd (version 5.2):-O

I made a typo in /etc/rc.conf. As a result, when the system boots, it
reaches

Loading Configuration Files
/etc/rc.conf: 12: Syntax error: unterminated quoted string
Enter full path name or shell or ENTER for /bin/sh:

and dumps out to the command prompt in read only mode. Now I can not edit
rc.conf to fix the problem.

I tried to mount the file system, but have failed to do so from this prompt
or using "fixit"
because I cannot mount to a read only mount point.

To make matters worse, my boot floppy has a bad sector and won't boot.....

This is a custom compiled kernel for ntp use. I really do not wish to do a
new install, etc.

Is there an easy way to get to a point where I can gain access to
/etc/rc.conf on the hard drive? Please
do not assume I know the syntax.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Tom

[Andreas Schwarz]

Tom King wrote:

>I made a typo in /etc/rc.conf. As a result, when the system boots, it
>reaches

>Loading Configuration Files
>/etc/rc.conf: 12: Syntax error: unterminated quoted string
>Enter full path name or shell or ENTER for /bin/sh:

>and dumps out to the command prompt in read only mode. Now I can not edit
>rc.conf to fix the problem.

Use "mount -f" to change the mount status to rw.

Andreas

--
PGP: 0x661AB571

[jpd]

Oh the joys of a little bit of knowledge. The standard way to do this is

# mount -uw /

There's no need to force since / isn't unclean (I presume, anyway).

This is a FAQ too, and yes, it is in the FAQl.

--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .

[Tom King]

Thank you very much! Problem solved with your kindly help. In the end, your
help really
saved me a lot of time and frustration.

jpd wrote: "Oh the joys of a little bit of knowledge."

How true! I am an embedded systems programmer (C/C++ and assembly) and it
can be
very frustrating to know just enough to get in trouble! I am enjoying
freebsd, especially when combined
with GPS and NTP. This is great stuff! I now have my own stratum 1 atomic
time reference :-) (now that
it is running again).

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