Hosed fstab, won't boot how to edit?

[Ron Siven]

Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> Ron Siven wrote:
>> Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>>> So I mistyped noatime in /etc/fstab; wished there was a way to test 
>>> this first!
>>>
>>> Anyway, since this is my ASUS Eee and my swap is on the SD card, by 
>>> pulling the SD card the boot halts and puts me into Repair 
>>> Filesystem mode.
>>>
>>> Thing is /etx fstab is readonly. vi fstab won't let me save the file.
>>>
>>> I really don't want to do a complete reinstall yet. I want to buy a 
>>> 8Gb SD card first (and next time I am putting /usr on the SD card). 
>>> So how can I edit this?
>>>
>>>
>> If this is the same as rescue mode booting from the CD/DVD, the file 
>> system is mounted to /mnt/sysimage. To get root access, use chroot 
>> /mnt/sysimage. Then use vim to edit /etc/fstab 
> The prompt is:
>
> (Repair filesystem) n #
>
> Where n is a command number it seems. I had to provide the root 
> password to get into this mode.
>
> As for 'chroot /mnt/sysimage', I get:
>
> chroot: cannot change root directory to /mnt/sysimage: No such file or 
> directory
>
>

Do you have the CD/DVD that you installed from to boot with?  From there 
you can specify rescue mode and use the method I described above.