Help! Does anyone on the bus know Linux?

Open source operating system fans, your time has come

Bork!Bork!Bork! Most people would be perfectly happy to ride the bus without seeing ads. So this latest public error could be a blessing in disguise for passengers, if not for the bus company hoping to make money. Love it or hate it, this bit of borked digital signage looks to have run into a problem that only an open-source hero can solve.

Spotted by Register reader Jay, today's entry in the pantheon of bork is a screen bolted to a bus that has failed to boot. Indeed, a grub rescue prompt indicates that something has gone seriously awry.

Screen showing a grub rescue prompt - Click to enlarge

Judging by the state of the wall beneath the screen, there was likely some decidedly non-digital signage (a paper ad perhaps) stuck there initially. It was replaced with something a little more hi-tech, which has rewarded the passengers by showing them error messages rather than another annoying ad.

In this instance, "Grub" probably refers to Linux's Grand Unified Bootloader, which many Linux distributions use to handle the system startup process. It fires up the Linux kernel and does the bare minimum to get the hardware operational. So not a sneaky late-night kebab.

The rescue shell (which is where it looks like this bit of signage has left the passengers) can be used to repair a non-booting Linux system. A person with some Linux familiarity could use it to manually identify a partition, locate the grub directory, and persuade the operating system to boot.

Yes, fixing the problem is not for the fainthearted. Without the necessary skills, a grub rescue prompt is of little help, and of course, there is no input device attached, even if a passenger was able to leap to their feet with the words "Don't worry! I can fix this! I know Linux!"

This is perhaps a version of Speed that a true open source aficionado could really get behind. If the bus drops below a certain speed, Linux will stop booting. After all, it can't be worse than Speed 2.

As for this screen, Jay told us that it was soon rectified. Was there indeed a Linux guru on board? Someone able to deal with a borked bootloader? No.

"They've 'fixed' it by turning off the screen." ®