When I booted into linux with linux hdd=ide-scsi, the boot up process never made it to rc.local. This leads me to the conclusion that speakup.i has scsi emulation disabled in slackware 8.0. That would explain this failure and my additional speculation is that the builder of speakup.i if he uses it on his own computer is backing his system up on 1.44mb floppy disks. For sure nothing else can be used as a backup medium unless zip disks are used. Linux is now about as expensive as windows over here not because of screen reader technology but more because of all the failed backup technology I've brought and tried out with it. I think slackware should get the choices made to build these speakup kernels in separate text files so that a linux user group can check out the choices made and help a new user of linux rebuild their kernel with the right choices in place. It's unreasonable for new users of linux to be expected to know the best answers to the questions asked when building a linux kernel. Not only do they have to know about chip sets I never heard of until I tried building a kernel for the first time but they also need to know what impacts their choices are going to have on necessary functions of their systems once built. I've been programming professionally for the last 14 years and doing it amateur for another 7 years before that and it's been because I've been on the software side exclusively that I hadn't heard of that hardware. Also, I wasn't in the market for the cmd6x chips since there wasn't the money to buy them at that time. Evidently, no matter which kernel gets built it's always necessary to have at least scsi emulation support turned on. So, the going question is as follows. Is there a way a root user can interrogate the existing kernel and make it write out a file with all of those configuration choices made in it when it was first built? I think I need this kernel reviewed by some local lihjnux gurus wiser than myself and we'll probably end up doing a build of a new kernel with some better choices made. I expect it'll take a few months to get the review and new build done, but it'll be worth the wait. I'll be using the newest stable kernel available at that time for the build too. If I can get one for scsi built too, and get them zipped I'll contribute to the speakup ftp site. -- Jude <dashielljt(at)gmpexpress-dot-net>
