Jude: It's sounding to me as though you do not have the kernel with speakup already compiled in--for whatever reason. I presume you're hearing the lilo prompt by virtue of the serial command string in lilo.conf. But hearing the 'at' sign during the boot process is a pretty strong indicator of the kudzu new hardware detector trying to figure out what that thing attached at that port is. This would not happen if speakup were being launched. So, it's one of two things: 1.) For whatever reason, you're not passing the correct speakup synthesizer command; 2.) For whatever reason, the kernel you installed doesn't have speakup in it; The solution to the first is to be sure and type, by hand, first the correct kernel name, followed by a space, followed by speakup_synth=ltlk and then pressing enter at the lilo boot prompt. Again, you may need to do a Ctrl-X first, unless you've replaced /boot/message with a simple text file; Of course, the better solution is to have the string in lilo.conf below the 'read only' line of the section that names the kernel being loaded. The syntax is: append="speakup_synth=ltlk" The solution to the second issue is to get the appropriate kernel rpm package and install it. Use ftp to go to speakup.octothorp.org and then cd to /pub/roswell/b1/RedHat/RPMS/ -- beware the capital letters in RedHat and in RPMS. Get the appropriate kernel image for your system -- probably kernel-2.4.7-6.i386.rpm and install it as follows: rpm -ivh kernel-2.4.7-6.i386.rpm You will now have a new vmlinuz. I believe the rpm installer will run lilo for you, but just in case, there's no harm in learning to do it by hand. So, type lilo and press enter. As for coming up in GNOME, edit /etc/inittab. There's a line that reads: id:5:initdefault: The 5 tells linux to start the gui interface by default. So, to get the text based run level with networking by default, change it to: id:3:initdefault: Do not modify the X references at the bottom of the file. It won't hurt, if you're not running X, but you'll want to eventually. Of course, you'll probably have reinstalled before then! <grin> On Sat, 8 Sep 2001, Jude DaShiell wrote: > When I boot now, I hear lilo, then I hear boot, then I hear loading linux, > then I hear the at sign, and all the rest is silence. If I hit ackspace I > don't hear the beep so this thing is still coming up in gnome mode. I > managed to log in using gnome and get such changes I have managed using > exec >/dev/ttyS0 2>&1 on a line by itself. > I got Bill's speakup.kmap.gz file stored and loaded into > /etc/sysconfig/keyboard too. How do I disable gnome permanently so it > doesn't break the log in anymore? > > > Jude <jdashiel@shellworld.net> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list@redhat.com > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper, Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp Learn how to make accessible software at http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp