RE: Help configuring an HIL mouse on an HP 715. - (Major disaster! - Am I back at ground level 0?)
Hi Grant,
> interrupt the PDC powerup until you get "BOOT_ADMIN" prompt.
> Specify "boot -i" from the BOOT_ADMIN prompt.
> Then palo will give you a menu of options which can be edited.
> Change which kernel is being booted and just try different ones.
> Read the palo HOW-TO (on the web) for guidance on the interface.
> If that fails, boot from ISO. Manually mount the hard disk
> Copy different kernels to the mounted /boot and follow above
> steps to test them. /etc/palo.conf helps "remember" which kernel
> is the default one to boot.
I did manage to recover by using a combination of the tips above (except
that I had to modify the first tip to: "boot alt isl", instead) to restore
the original kernel ("vmlinux-2.4.17-32").
Since I can't get "vmlinux-2.4.20-32" to boot in my machine, I then got and
installed "kernel-image-2.4.19-32" (to try to fix my HIL mouse/keyboard
problem) but I now have a new problem: when I boot using the
"vmlinux-2.4.19-32" kernel, things go well until I reach a point where I get
a Debian GNU Linux blue screen with a gray menu that asks to "Choose your
current network-environment !", and gives 2 choices: "Installation_default"
and "Set_up_new_environment" and has 2 "buttons": "< OK >" and "< Cancel >".
But, the keyboard (and mouse) are disabled, so I can't choose!!!!! (Ie. I
can't proceed or shutdown gracefully, because the networking hasn't yet been
enabled - so I can't telnet to the machine - so my only choice is to pull
the AC plug, because pressing the power button doesn't halt the system!)
I believe that the "Choose your current network-environment !" blue screen
occurs in my system because of a wrong default I took during the
installation from the ISO disk (I didn't know any better!) and I used to get
that same screen with "vmlinux-2.4.17-32". But, in that case, I was able to
make the proper choice with the keyboard, since it continued working OK up
to that stage in the boot process.
I may be wrong, but here is my theory of what's happening now: the good
news is that I think the new kernel ("vmlinux-2.4.19-32") must have "solved"
the HIL/keyboard problem (but too early): ie. the HIL driver must have been
enabled before the blue screen menu (since the keyboard behavior has changed
with the new kernel), but the software behind that menu doesn't know how to
use the new driver. I also think that if I can somehow get rid of the blue
screen (by changing an entry in some configuration file? - but which?) my
problem would go away. Since a previous user (Damien) reported that he got
"kernel-image-2.4.19-32" to work for him in an HP 715 machine, I am guessing
that he did not have that blue screen menu enabled - therefore no problem in
his case.
What do you think?
Is there an easy way to disable the blue screen after booting to the old
kernel?
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