This situation you describe isn't exactly making sense to me. But, I would offer the following suggestions: There should be no guessing game about whether you boot with appropriate settings or not. Take care of that: 1.) Get rid of the default /boot/message file. Of course, if you make the remaining changes below, it won't matter, but do it anyway. Replace it with some simple text like "Welcome to Cheryl's Linux Computer" it doesn't matter -- just get rid of the graphic that Redhat puts up by default. PS: It's smart to get some ^7 chars in there to ring your bell, as it were; 2.) Edit lilo.conf to start linux with your speech synth talking if you haven't done this already; 3.) Edit /etc/inittab to make runlevel 3 your default runlevel. Look for a line that says: id:5:initdefault: and change it to read: id:3:initdefault: As for what pam is, it stands for pluggable authentication modules. You can usually answer such questions for yourself, though, by using the man pages -- man, as in manual. So, you could type: man pam Now, a couple of other key basics: Let me suggest the following man command: man bash Also, let me point you to /usr/doc where there's all kind of documentation. Pay particular attention to the HOWTO directory there. That's your gold mine. Inside there, there are a couple of HOWTOs particularly for beginners. Again, I recommend the bash HOWTO, and probably the HOWTO for Windows and DOS users. Have you gotten to mail and web browsing? Most folks start out, and some never leave, pine and lynx for these, respectively. In each, be sure to configure them to track the cursor. It'll make you a lot happier. On Sat, 8 Sep 2001, Cheryl Homiak wrote: > Your description brings up a question I have. A few times I have booted > and ended up at something for the login tha said "Pam unix" and something > about opening a session. At this point I can't read the screen or seem to > do anything with my keyboard and my keyboard doesn't echo, but I get > announcements occasionally about chron stipping for mail or something like > that. One time when this happened I know it was because i accidentally > had X booting up at start, but this has happened once or twice without me > having any idea how I got there. What is a "pam unix session" and how > does one end up there without planning it? > > Cheryl > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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