"init 1" mode on n900

[mikhmv]

Hi Guys,
I little bit played with file "/etc/event.d/rcS-late".
Now my phone cannot be loaded. I exactly know which line with error, I exactly know how to fix error but I don't know how to modify this file.

Can anybody give advice how can i do it?

Now when phone start to boot it is hang up and didn't boot completely. I would like to enter in analog of linux "init 1" mode but don't know how to do it.

[pete]

It's been a long while since I was using Linux daily, but I remember that runlevel switching to singleuser mode was at boot time from LILO (usually to fix something). I don't know what bootloader Maemo uses but it's probably similar unless things have drastically changed.

Does the phone start at all or can you not reboot it? If you changed the runlevel in a running kernel, it's likely dropped you out of runlevel 3, which is what I think is normal multiuser mode, so no X, etc., .

I've just done a Google search and came up with this: the phone will not boot without Nokia servicing if the /var/lib/dsme/boot_count reaches 50. This is a record of the number of times the phone has rebooted itself e.g., due to a crash and not with the user starting the reboot. Might be something there with your problem?

This is what my phone says it contains. What did you change?

~ $ cat /etc/event.d/rcS-late

description "late rcS actions" 

start on started xomap 
stop on stopping bme 

console none 

script 
# Generate fstab and mount /home 
. /etc/default/mount-opts 

fstab=/etc/fstab 
tmp_fstab=/tmp/fstab 

sfdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0 | awk \ 
-v home_opts="$home_opts" -v fat_opts="$fat_opts" \ 
-f /usr/lib/genfstab.awk > $tmp_fstab 

cmp -s $tmp_fstab $fstab || cp $tmp_fstab $fstab 
rm -f $tmp_fstab 

/bin/mount /home || echo "Failed to mount /home partition." 

if [ ! -d /home/user ] 
then 
if [ -d /home/preinstalled ] 
then 
mv /home/preinstalled /home/user 
else 
mkdir /home/user 
fi 
cd /etc/skel 
cp -a . /home/user 
chown -R user:users /home/user 
fi 

# We can safely continue booting now. 
initctl emit MOUNTS_OK 

/sbin/swapon -a || echo "Failed to enable paging partition." 

# Setup lowmem module 
echo 32768 > /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_deny_watermark_pages 
echo 98304 > /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_notify_high_pages 
echo 131072 > /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_notify_low_pages 
echo 1024 > /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_nr_decay_pages 

# Exclude some UIDs from memory allocation denial. 
# 30000 is messagebus, 30001 could be used by Matchbox 
echo "30000 30001 30002 30003" > /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_allowed_uids 

# Adjust flushing of memory card buffers 
echo 40 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio 
echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio 

# Initialize PRNG pool with the HW RNG. Slow, but that's ok. 
URANDOM_POOLSZ=512 
if [ -e /dev/hwrng ]; then 
echo "Seeding entropy pool" 
dd if=/dev/hwrng of=/dev/urandom bs=$URANDOM_POOLSZ count=1 
fi 
end script 

normal exit 0

[mikhmv]

Originally Posted by pete

It's been a long while since I was using Linux daily, but I remember that runlevel switching to singleuser mode was at boot time from LILO (usually to fix something). I don't know what bootloader Maemo uses but it's probably similar unless things have drastically changed.

I have never used LILO. I used only GRUB. But on n900 they don't use GRUB and I don't think that it is LILO.....

Does the phone start at all or can you not reboot it? If you changed the runlevel in a running kernel, it's likely dropped you out of runlevel 3, which is what I think is normal multiuser mode, so no X, etc., .

Phone is bricked. Cannot reboot or boot. I know that I can re-flash it but I would like to try do it without flashing. Partially I am intresting in this mode because I have corrupted files in /home/user folder. I tried to run "fsck" on /home volume before mounting it.
Anyway having mode for make system changes in "init 1" mode (before mounting all volumes and starting most programs) will be very helpful.

[mikhmv]

I had corrupted files in /home/user for fixing this I added line
"fsck -a /home" after line "rm -f $tmp_fstab" and reboot

[ruskie]

You should be able to use flasher to pass a custom init="sed 'whateverline' file" to get it back.

[myk]

Originally Posted by ruskie

You should be able to use flasher to pass a custom init="sed 'whateverline' file" to get it back.

Can you use the same approach to get something like single user mode? e.g. start sshd without the GUI, so you can fix any problems that stop it booting normally.
What init arg would you need to start networking without GUI?

[ruskie]

Most likely you could. but I think you would need to have a separate init process for it all. Sounds like an interesting project. A simple shell script that would try to establish basic networking and access and that could be replaced quickly if needed.

[fanoush]

Originally Posted by mikhmv

Now when phone start to boot it is hang up and didn't boot completely. I would like to enter in analog of linux "init 1" mode but don't know how to do it.

out of box this works only via serial console, there is no framebuffer console enabled in kernel and the keyboard in not complete enough to enter commands (blue key would not work in pure console)

except serial console I see only one option in current state - compile custom kernel with mmc driver enabled, extract rootfs from firmware image to microsd card and boot such kernel with root set to mmc. then you can start xterm in clean system and fix stuff

or I think it is possible to prepare initrd image with basic stuff (dropbear over usb networking or even basic shell over usb serial gadget) and load and boot it via flasher

also before doing dangerous stuff you could have bootmenu installed and cloned your system to microsd card and either do such experiments there or at least boot from it in case you break system in internal flash.

Hmm, I guess it is time to try that initrd idea :-)