# Install will no longer boot



## jrl1357 (Sep 28, 2012)

Ok, so I made some changes to fstab. Two suggested from when I installed openjdk, one to tey and mount an external drive. Frist: mounting the external fails. So I boot into single user mode, chang it, and reboot. Now, It goes into a boot loup shortly after checking net work and just keeps rebooting and rebooting. Single user mode no longer lets me change the fstab file. What should I do? Is there a way to mount root from single user mode so I can edit fstab?


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## SirDice (Sep 28, 2012)

jrl1357 said:
			
		

> Is there a way to mount root from single user mode so I can edit fstab?




```
fsck -y
mount -u /
mount -a -t ufs
swapon -a
```


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## jrl1357 (Sep 28, 2012)

That worked but changing the fstab didn't fix the problem like I thought it would. I took a video and the last message before it goes into reboot is starting syslogd. Any reason this would cause the problem? Any way to change it? Could I possibly boot into the system by mounting root again, and then somehow switching to not just root?


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## mamalos (Sep 28, 2012)

Do you have the message of the reason you're rebooting? (The system should report an error before rebooting).

Moreover, once in single user mode, and after having mounted all your filesystems like SirDice suggested, you can read your configuration files and change them to something meaningful (eg. comment out all entries of /etc/rc.conf; OK you can leave your network settings untouched, but if I were you I'd prefer to be on the safe side) in order to perform a "clean boot". Next, edit /etc/fstab so as to mount *only* the necessary filesystems you need to boot (/, /usr, /var, /tmp and maybe swap as well). After your PC boots normally, start uncommenting all lines of /etc/rc.conf one by one and start the relevant services to see where you fail.

If this doesn't help, clear all entries in /boot/loader.conf and /etc/sysctl.conf as well. If that fails too, then you must have a pretty messed up system, mate!! 

Good luck.


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## jrl1357 (Sep 28, 2012)

Ok, as I have said before the only messge beofre reboot was starting syslogd


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## SirDice (Sep 28, 2012)

Are you sure the hardware itself isn't failing? There's no reason why it should reboot. Especially not without any indications like a panic(9).


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## mamalos (Sep 29, 2012)

jrl1357 said:
			
		

> Ok, as I have said before the only messge beofre reboot was starting syslogd



Have you disabled all programs running on boot? Maybe one of your installed programs reboots your system...

Tell me something: when you say that the system reboots, does it shutdown gracefully (do you see any messages like "syncing disks", etc) or does it reboot abruptly? If the latter, it is quite probable that it's a hardware issue, as SirDice pointed out.


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