Re: Start linux without login prompt

From: Cameron L. Spitzer (spambait@merde.greens.org)
Date: 02/12/03 

From: "Cameron L. Spitzer" <spambait@merde.greens.org>
Date: 12 Feb 2003 22:13:01 GMT

In article <b2dnvr$1j4d$1@justice.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk>, killerkit wrote:
> Is there any method to start linux without login prompt?
> That means login with root without prompting for user and password

Suppose you are at the Linux loader boot prompt and your kernel
image is called bf24. With most installations, you can hit Enter
and the default behavior is to load Linux, mount root, and run
/sbin/init. But you can give some other program on the
kernel command line. Type

  bf24 init=/bin/bash

and most installations will give you a shell on console 1 and nothing
else running. You could argue that's not "starting linux" because no
partitions except root got mounted and no daemons are running and there's
no network. But what you have is a Linux kernel (bf24) and a GNU shell,
and that's about what Linus had 11 years ago. It's also what you're
supposed to get if you type "telinit 1" to a root shell.

Cameron

Ps, most installations don't call the default kernel image "bf24".
I don't know what yours is called. bf24 is a kernel you might
choose if you install Debian. Read your boot loader manual and
find out how to get a list of bootable things at the loader prompt.

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