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User profile for user: Carla Hufstedler
Carla Hufstedler Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

booting into Terminal prompt?

What keystroke combination will allow me to boot into a Unix prompt upon startup?

Thank you!

Snow iMac LE (now in a hd enclosure); iBook G3 12" dual USB, pink iPod mini, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jul 3, 2007 11:00 AM

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User profile for user: George LaForge
George LaForge
User level: Level 1
71 points

Posted on Jul 3, 2007 12:03 PM

Provided open firmware protection is not enabled you can log in as root by holding down Command-S when you boot. Refer to this article for more detail.

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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User profile for user: Gary Kerbaugh
Gary Kerbaugh
User level: Level 6
18,040 points

Jul 8, 2007 5:42 PM in response to Ken Nellis

Hi Ken,

> It is to those who know what they're doing.

Yes and Mihalis is one of the absolute best there is. Fortunately for us, he's also one of the most helpful; check out his posts on the Command Line & Terminal discussion.

Mihalis is also correct that despite the power of the command line, in single user mode without any services started, the computer is a mere shadow of what it can be. Remember that according to Sun, "the network is the computer." Mihalis could be trying to determine what Carla means by "boot into a Unix prompt upon startup." It could refer to single user mode or it could inaccurately refer to the ">console" login. (Does that still work?) If it really refers to single user mode then it probably indicates a problem to be solved and Mihalis could be trying see if we could be of assistance with the problem.
--
Gary
~~~~
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world. Those
who understand binary numbers and those who don't.
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User profile for user: Mihalis Tsoukalos
Mihalis Tsoukalos
User level: Level 4
2,015 points

Jul 8, 2007 11:00 PM in response to Ken Nellis

Gary was right about what I was thinking. Gary, thanks for your kind words.
Also, if someone cannot find how to boot into single user mode, it is unlikely that he/she will know how to use it.
My opinion is that Carla whats to boot into text mode (linux uses it a lot) but not in single user mode.
Ken, you are also right that the system is not unusable, provided that you know what you are doing.
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User profile for user: Carla Hufstedler
Carla Hufstedler Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Sep 10, 2007 5:36 AM in response to Brian Reading

Brian Reading wrote:
My opinion is that Carla whats to boot into text mode (linux uses it a lot) but not in single user mode.


Yes, you're both right--I was unclear about my intentions because I was a little confuzzled about my iBook's bad attitude at the time. 🙂

I meant both: single mode, and literally text mode; the latter as in a boot loader, like LILO or GRUB. I could have sworn that that ability was built into the system (being BSD and X11), but I was wrong, methinks.

I do know my way around single-user mode, which is the term that was escaping me, and therefore the reason I was so unclear. I apologize. I couldn't remember the name, let alone the keystrokes. 😀

So, I apologize: Command + S is my friend is the answer to part 1; nope, to part 2.

This is what I hope comes in Mac OS X 10.5, however I'm pretty sure the > chances are slim to none.


Would be nice. However, the rumors (?) I've heard are that that point will be moot for me, since 10.5 will apparently be leaving the G3 behind. Oh, well.

Thank you all for your help. Sorry about the confusion--I'm a technical writer by profession, I know better!
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booting into Terminal prompt?

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