Hi,

On Aug 23, 2012, at 15:18 , Pat Riehecky <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On 08/18/2012 03:57 PM, David Sommerseth wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I've been running Scientific Linux since the 6.0 days, and single-user mode have basically behaved how I have expected it those few times I needed it.  As I usually set up my boxes root accounts with passwords disabled, single-user mode needs to be without root password.
>> 
>> Today, after having upgraded from 6.3, I needed to enter single-user mode at boot.  And I was asked for a password at boot time.  Is this change intentional?
>> 
>> # cat /etc/redhat-release
>> Scientific Linux release 6.3 (Carbon)
>> # rpm -qa | grep -i sl_password_for_singleuser | wc -l
>> 0
>> # grep SINGLE /etc/sysconfig/init
>> SINGLE=/sbin/sushell
>> 
>> If this change was intentional, how can I go back to the old behaviour?  I double checked the behaviour with an old VM with SL6.1, and that behaves as expected.
>> 
>> 
>> kind regards,
>> 
>> David Sommerseth
> 
> Hi David,
> 
> The behavior shouldn't have changed.  You've provided just about all the relevant details in your email, so there isn't really anything I want to ask for more information.

but I do :-) How did you end up in single user mode? Did you pass "single" to the kernel, or was there a problem with a filesystem and the system decided to drop you to a shell?

In the latter case, rc.sysinit in SL < 6.3 unconditionally ran sulogin, which may explain some of the complaints we had on this list, and this case.

As of 6.3 the rcS-emergency task is started instead. It still defaults to sulogin, but it's configurable. An EMERGENCY=/sbin/sushell in /etc/sysconfig/init should do.

Regards,
	Stephan

> Can I have you try setting /etc/sysconfig/init => SINGLE to /sbin/sulogin rebooting and setting it back to /sbin/sushell?  Perhaps something got 'stuck' wrong....
> 
> /sbin/sushell is a shell script, so can I have you verify its contents?  Mine looks like:
> 
> #!/bin/bash
> 
> [ -z "$SUSHELL" ] && SUSHELL=/bin/bash
> 
> exec $SUSHELL
> 
> 
> Pat

-- 
Stephan Wiesand
DESY - DV -
Platanenallee 6
15732 Zeuthen, Germany