If this machine is that old, you might have to fall badck to something like Slackware 12.1 or before. I have a couple machines that none of the new images will boot on but I could always get this old Slackware disk to do it. I think it is 12.1 or before. if 12.1 doesn't work, then try 12.0; that will work for sure. Anything later than that would not work on either of these older machines. On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 07:29:15PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Christopher and all, > > > On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 07:57:43PM -0500, Christopher Moore wrote: > > First, there is a grub rescue floppy disk which should help you fix your grub problems. You might need sighted assistance to run it. I forget the name > > , but you can google it. > > Yes, it's called supergrub, and the need for sighted assistance is why > I haven't tried it, at least not yet. > > > > > Second, in the old days, we were able to copy the vmlinuz image to a floppy with dd and boot from it. > > > > Yes, however, I seem to recall reading somewhere that new kernels > don't support doing that anymore. Even if they do, the initrd won't > fit on a floppy, and without the initrd, there's nothing that I could > really do. > > > Third, when grub doesn't boot successfully, you can get into a shell prompt. This allows you to use many of the normal shell commands to help determine > > what went wrong. In particular, you can mount devices and move/copy files. Again, you won't have speech. > > Yes, I've tried getting into that, like I described in my first post, > but without sighted help. > > > > > Finally, save yourself from further headaches and trash the machine. > > Yes, that thought has crossed my mind too, but even though software > speech is all fine and good, there's still some part of me that > refuses to let go of my doubletalk pc as long as it still works, and > as long as I have a machine to use it in. Some might think this silly, > I know. > > Thanks for all your ideas everyone, they're much appreciated. I have > an old version of systemrescuecd lying around here somewhere, which I > seem to recall works on this system. If that's correct, then hopefully > it won't be too old for me to be able to chroot into the system on the > hd with it. If it is, then I thought I could use it to upload the > kernel, and initrd to another machine on my lan, and use isolinux to > boot with them. I'll post back with whatever finally happens for the > record, but since this machine isn't a priority, and since getting it > bootable again looks like a somewhat complex project, that may not be > soon. Thanks again. > > Greg > > > - -- > web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org > gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc > skype: gregn1 > (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first) > > - -- > Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager at EU.org > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) > > iEYEARECAAYFAk1UnvsACgkQ7s9z/XlyUyBPnQCgpK+pDwKxar/eIA5fxAuxDuwI > Iy4AoIVp7RpKHjbsIO8gQvPXq6IgSpqP > =O0DS > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
