[lug] Linux Emergency

[Charles Hill Cooper]

Hi all,

My work is at a standstill until I can get my Linux box (dual Windows boot)
to recognize its NIC and bring up etherNet. It would be good if it would
mount the Windows partition, run atalk, and recognize the modem for dial out
to the internet. At one time or another, it did all these things. But mine
is the story of woe brought on by ignorance and pet ownership.

My rabbit chewed through my mouse cord. This froze the system, forcing a
reset. Ctl-Alt-Del didn't work. This was days ago, so I don't remember
exactly what went wrong, but I managed to fix everything except for the X
system. That was okay but not as convenient. So, I persisted in trying to
fix the X system.

At some point I got the brilliant idea of re-upgrading from the RedHat 7.1
CD-ROMs. Eventually, I got the X system to work, though upgrading didn't
seem to help. But then I no longer had etherNet, atalk or a mountable
Windows partition.

Then I decided it was time to reinstall and just hope I didn't lose all my
data. I didn't loose my data, but I just made things worse.

On start-up it says "Delaying eth0 ..." and then "FAILURE".
It says "vfat not recognized by kernal".

The X system doesn't function. It just cycles through "blinking" the screen.
But I think I can fix this (again) on my own. Either wrong configuration (of
video card or monitor) or bad path to fonts. It has done this once for each
reason. The bad path was "unix:7100". Why, I dont' know.

I have never gotten the modem to work since upgrading to RedHat 7.1.
Couldn't get ltmodem to work. Supposedly the fellow who originally set up
the system "tweeked" a driver to get it to work. God help me.

So, if anyone can help or knows someone who can come over or even someone to
whom I can take the smoldering piece of junk, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks!

Charles Cooper
chcooper at nilenet.com
303-449-6557