Hi, > I'm assuming you use lilo. when you boot up and get the lilo prompt, If you dont get the lilo prompt you need to hold down the shift-key before the kernel is loading. This will be a user option in liloconfig.
BTW: instead of 'single' you can also use 'emergency' which will even skip the sysinit script (in case you have a REAL problem that you systemget stuck before it is able to enter single user mode). Greetings Bernd