On Jul 3,  3:01pm, Mark Berkwitt wrote:

> Thanks for the explanation.  It appears I do have LILO on my floppy because
> the "linux root=/dev/hda2" command worked fine in booting my system to
> maintanance mode.  Still can't start X though.
> However, using "Running Linux" 2nd ed. by Mat Welsh I tried,
>     rdev /boot/vmlinuz
> and got Root device /dev/hdb1 back which I expected.  I then tried
>     rdev /boot/vmlinuz /dev/hda2
> whereupon I received the response that
>     vmlinuz  Read-only file system.
> I could try "linux root=/dev/hda2 rw" but I don't know if that is legit.  Of
> course when I attempted changing vmlinuz with chmod ugo+rwx vmlinuz, I got
> the same response.
> 
> I think I'll try that reboot parm "rw" with the reboot.  If it fails well...
> I still can try changing the boot floppy as you recommended.  I'll have to
> find a good floppy first.
> When I finally have full function restored I'm going to install LILO for
> multiple OSs.

Mark,

My recommendation at this point is to not modify your old boot disk. 
Instead, use it once (or twice as necessary) to boot using the "linux
root=/dev/hda2" command.  Once linux comes up, fix your /etc/fstab
entries by hand.  (Use vi or some other editor.)  I suspect that
the reason X isn't coming up is that one or more filesystems are not
getting mounted.

Then make a brand new boot disk using "mkbootdisk" and keep your old
boot disk as a spare.  (Just remember to use the "root=..." option if
you ever need to use it again.)

Also, it is well worth it to download tomsrtbt even if you don't need
it at this point.  You should attempt to boot it and play around with
it just so that you can find your way around in the event that your
system ever needs rescuing.

Kevin