eric> ok i goofed; i have a typo in /etc/inittab.
  eric> guess i set the run level to 9 instead of 3.
  eric> that's what happens when you learn 10-key on
  eric> two different keyboard layouts. on this
  eric> machine, i normally boot from a floppy to hda5;
  eric> i.e., lilo is not installed. but booting here
  eric> fails because obviously run level 9 does not
  eric> exist. "boot -s" i thought would work around so
  eric> I could fix /etc/inittab, but it is not booting
  eric> into single mode. not sure why. how can i get
  eric> to that file to fix it?

Sounds like a job for tomsrtbt (Tom's Root Boot), the
best tool I've ever seen for such emergencies. Everyone
should have a copy sitting around somewhere. Visit:

http://www.toms.net/rb/

Download the floppy image, put it on a disk, and boot
from the disk, after which you'll be able to mount your
box's root file system and fix the inittab.

-- 
Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, AZ