Repair filesystem” prompt

Now system was unable to boot the system because it was reading /etc/fstab file was unable to find the device for it. This can also happen when you have some external hard-drive attached with your linux system and you remove device but forgot to clean its entry from /etc/fstab file.

Linux gives you a “Repair Filesystem” prompt in this situation and you can enter that by providing the root password. The problem is that on “Repair Filesystem” prompt, linux file system and rest of the file systems are generally not mounted and if mounted then it is “Read-Only” so you can not change files.

Solution:

Use following command to mount the filesystem with writable permission:

Repair filesystem # mount -w -o remount /

After this you can go and change /etc/fstab file. Restart your computer and that’s it.