single-user mode should work when libraries are broken

Binary package hint: friendly-recovery

It would be great if the recovery-menu project could add a static-compiled stub that tries to run the recovery-menu with bash, and if that fails it would try to fall back to a known static-compiled shell (such as sash, busybox-static, or bash-static) then falling back to /sbin/sulogin if nothing else is available.

In my opinion, attempting to fall-back to a static-compiled shell before falling back to sulogin does not significantly present any greater security concern. The Ubuntu default is to have the root password locked out, and administrators which like security will know that the best way to protect single-user mode is to add a GRUB-based password, as that retains the security of having the root account locked out. With the default installation of recovery-menu, Ubuntu has moved in a direction requiring boot-loader security to prevent the system from being manipulated in single-user mode. (With just the three options now available, it may be possible for a person to "fix" another person's X configuration to something unexpected.)

Additionally, with the recovery-menu logic automatically falling back to a staticly compiled shell, we can hopefully avoid static shell packages shadowing the root account to create a "root account with a static shell", like sash does with the "sashroot" account in hardy.