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Description: When discussing the debug shell on p.339, we should mention that a kernel parameter exists also to enable the debug shell: systemd.debug-shell

Documented in kernel-command-line(7). Has been available since rhel7.2 if I remember correctly.

Using it as a kernel parameter is not as "persistent" as enabling it as a service which is easy to forget about later on. Also, how do you enable a service on a system that doesn't boot properly? Would you go to rescue.target first just so you could get the debug shell enabled? The kernel parameter is so much easier.

Another great benefit of the systemd.debug-shell kernel parameter is that you can use it to safely, painlessly reset the root password. The SELinux policy is loaded, so no issues with that either. I am not going to beat a dead horse on why I never liked a password reset procedure that involves relabeling a whole system.

If you do accept this as an improvement, consider adding it to RH134 also. Ch.10. p.294 there.