> boot parameter "emergency" ?
>
> https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Debugging/
>
> Title: Booting into Rescue or Emergency Targets
> ...
> If the rescue target will not boot either, the more minimal emergency target might.
> ...
I have tried the parameter "emergency" - it still ends up "cannot open access to console, the root account is locked" .
I, too, tried different combinations of the kernel command line switches using both rescue and emergency.
I, too, read the documents about the rescue switches, in the Fedora 23 documentation under https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/23/html/Installation_Guide/sect-boot-options-rescue.html it is set as "inst.rescue".
I have no idea why this is happening - it used to be so easy.