Are there any gadgets out there that one can connect to a Linux box which will hook to the VGA output of a computer needing BIOS setup work and output text so we don't have to bother other people to help us tinker? Another possibility might be to use a LCD monitor which generally has much less flicker than do the old CRT-style monitors and then snap a picture of the screen on an iPad and use something like Prismo which is an OCR program that, when you can get it to work works well. The longest shot I am thinking of is to buy a device from Epifan which can receive VGA video and converts it in to a .uvc file which is the same format that web cams use. I will have to dive in to perl and write a program that can at least decode the characters on that screen. One nice thing about that is that it is guaranteed to be straight and in focus. I will have to learn about the .uvc format in order to expand one frame of video in to the bit map. I'm glad nobody is waiting on this project besides me. Even so, this is a perfect example of how technology works against you when you want to do something that all the suits who design this stuff didn't anticipate you needing to do. In this case, I've got some old Dell computers which need to always boot from CDROM before the hard drive. When you set them up this way, they revert back to a different sequence for some unknown reason after maybe 6 months or a year. As computer users who are blind, it's much better all around if we can solve our own problems within reason. Some rack-mount servers do have serial-based setup methods but most desktops don't. Besides, if you have ever been in the same room as many rack-mount servers, you'll notice it's like being on the runway when a jet is about to take off. They are built to be in a rack with gobs of other hot servers and they move a ton of air with their tiny fast-moving fans. Anyway, thanks for any good ideas. Martin McCormick _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list