\_ > \_ > Hmm; is the drive still mounted ro when you try this?
\_ > \_ 
\_ > \_ Shouldn't matter should it?
\_ > 
\_ > It is if your of paramater for dd is pointing to it.  :-)
\_ 
\_ africola:/# mount
\_ /dev/hda3 on / type ext2 (rw,errors=remount-ro)

Notice the leading part where it says (rw,...)?  Get that to say ro,
and get the command to run, and then I'll believe it's time to bake
that crow.  :-)

\_ proc on /proc type proc (rw)
\_ /dev/hda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
\_ africola:/# dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/tmp/ddout bs=512 count=2
\_ 2+0 records in
\_ 2+0 records out
\_ africola:/# ls -l /tmp/ddout
\_ -rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1024 Feb  2 11:04 /tmp/ddout
\_ africola:/# 

If I had a spare partition and wasn't distracted by Work(TM) I'd give
that a try rather than be lame and say "you do it".  Or I could mount
a loopback mount, but, I'm voting to be lame.

David