I'm screwed - can't login

[Jim Cornette]

Neal Becker wrote:

>My server has been running FC4 with all updates.  After my son just
>accidentally unplugged it, it rebooted so that noone can login.  If booted
>in text (mode 3), then after the login and password it just returns to
>login prompt.
>
>It can't be booted in single user mode.  When this is tried, it says "going
>into single user mode", but then starts all the same services as mode 3
>(AFAICT) and acts just the same.
>
>I booted into rescue mode, did chroot /mnt/sysimage, and looked
>at /var/log/messages and /var/log/secure.  Nothing intersting shown.
>
>I can't ssh in.  It just logs in and out immediately.
>
>Perhaps related, I had selected to disable selinux IIRC and it said it would
>relabel on next boot.  Of course, it crashed before that happened.
>
>
>
>  
>
Just a guess out of the blue. The error does sound like selinux related. 
Try adding selinux=0 to the grub loader.
If that does not do the trick, it might be a corrupted filesystem. In 
rescue mode, unmount /mnt/sysimage and then try to fsck the disks.
The last time I had a hosed system like that was when using apt and 
answering yes to the "Do you really want to do this?" prompt.

Jim

-- 
Established technology tends to persist in the face of new technology.
		-- G. Blaauw, one of the designers of System 360