How to Boot Safe Mode on Ubuntu 24.10?

Safe Mode in Ubuntu is called Recovery Mode, and it’s built into the GRUB bootloader. Here’s how to access it:

First, restart your system. While the system is booting up, hold the Shift key (for BIOS systems) or press Esc repeatedly (for UEFI systems). This will bring up the GRUB boot menu. Once you’re in the GRUB menu, use the arrow keys and select the option that ends with:

Advanced options for Ubuntu

Press Enter.

Now, you’ll see a list of kernel versions. Below each one, you’ll find an entry with (recovery mode) at the end, like this:

Ubuntu, with Linux 6.8.0-XX-generic (recovery mode)

Select that recovery mode entry and press Enter.

Ubuntu will boot into a Recovery Menu with several options:

• resume – Continue normal boot

• clean – Free up disk space

• dpkg – Repair broken packages

• fsck – Check file system

• root – Drop to root shell prompt

• network – Enable networking

To enter Safe Mode, select the root option. This will give you a root terminal with system-level access, without starting the full graphical environment.

If you want networking while in safe mode, choose the network option before entering root.

To remount your file system with write permissions, run:

mount -o remount,rw /

You’re now in Safe Mode and can run commands to fix broken configurations, drivers, or other issues.

When done, type:

reboot

to restart the system.