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Under the sbin and usr/bin directories, you'll find a minimal set of programs. The idea is to at least get you to the point where you can try to check your existing partitions, and possibly mount your drive. For example, if you have a Linux partition on /dev/hda3, you can try
# mount -t ext2 /dev/hda3 tmp
to mount your partition under tmp, and then attempt a fix. If you've installed Red Hat Linux, and for some reason your system won't boot, and you don't have your Red Hat boot disks, you can also try booting from your Red Hat Linux CD-ROM. Reboot your computer to DOS, change directory to the CD-ROM and then DOSUTILS, and then type AUTOBOOT, which will execute the AUTOBOOT.BAT batch file and put you into the Red Hat installation process.
As a final note, you should remember that if you add another hard drive to your Linux system, be sure to make an entry for its partition in /etc/fstab so the drive will automatically be mounted when you next start your system.
For information regarding the Linux boot process, a host of handy tips on building boot disks, pointers to boot disk packages, and a number of helpful scripts, see Tom Fawcett and Graham Chapman's "Linux Bootdisk HOWTO" under /usr/doc/HOWTO or at http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html.
You should also look for the following rescue packages and other helpful utilities at http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/recovery:
Read the man pages for the following commands on your Red Hat Linux system:
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If you ever lose or destroy your copies of the Red Hat Linux boot disks, you can get replacements at http://www.redhat.com/ftp.html.
For details on how 4.4BSD boots, see Tabbed Section 1 of 4.4BSD System Manager's Manual. For details about other UNIX boot processes, see UNIX Unleashed: System Administrator's Edition.
For loads of tips on maintaining your system, and background information about different Linux filesystems, see Lars Wirzenius's Linux System Administrators' Guide 0.5. You'll find a copy at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/LDP.
If you're interested in a Linux filesystem defragmenter, check out Stephen Tweedie and Alexei Vovenko's defragmenter. You'll find it at http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/defrag-0.6.tar.gz.
This chapter covers a number of topics concerning starting and shutting down Linux, including the following:
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