I didn't get very far trying to upgrade my VA Research VARstation 28 from SuSE 5.3 (which came preinstalled from VA); the first attempt, after inserting the 6.3 bootdisk and doing "init 6" after the usual shutdown messages, I got the colorful linuxrc screen, and in a text area below the color, a message said "initdisk.gz..." or something like that. Then after maybe ten seconds, the next message was: "SYSLINUX 1.48 0x3812e44a Copyright (C) 1994-1999 H. Peter Anvin Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue" All subsequent attempts have gone straight to the syslinux message without any of the linuxrc screen. I only saw the "initdisk.gz" message the first time. Maybe that sequence is useful info; I don't know. The box is a SCSI system, using a Symbios 8951 Ultra-2 controller, and in the /boot directory are a bunch of kernels named things like "va-generic-2.0.35-3.single.vmlinuz" and "va-monolithic-2.0.35-3.single.vmlinuz" and corresponding config and map files. The working kernel, vmlinuz, is a symlink to that generic kernel mentioned above. Can someone give me a clue as to the meaning of the error message, does it mean my floppy disk is damaged, or that I need a special kernel on it to upgrade this box? I can read an old ext2-formatted floppy with this drive, so I assume the drive is ok. Is there a backup disk image I can dd onto a new floppy on the 6.3 CDs somewhere, and if so, where? The manual hints at being able to supply "SYSLINUX (supplied bootdisk)" with kernel parameters, but I don't seem to be offered a prompt, or any other obvious place to enter parameters. I damaged the 5.3 YaST on this machine by suffering a power failure while YaST was running, so I was hoping to use this upgrade process to get a new, working YaST into the system. But if I can't even boot from the floppy, that plan seems kaput. I suppose now that SuSE 6.4 has been announced, I've dawdled around with 6.3 too long to get real, official installation support. If I need to compile a special kernel, and build a special boot disk with linuxrc and YaST and who-knows-what-all on it, I really don't know quite where to begin. I'd sure appreciate any help. jimo@eskimo.com Reg code: AMB366 -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/