So I had to try and fix things in the rootfs filesystem using the meego rescue initrd, which was complicated because I didn't understand ubifs at all. For anyone else that falls into that trap (assuming you're using the meego rescue initrd, or any other initrd that gives you a standard shell): 1. Append ubi.mtd=rootfs to the kernel command line. 2. Type at the shell prompt: mount -t ubifs ubi0:rootfs /mnt