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Gordon Smith | 5 May 2005 04:41
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Boot Issues Revisited


Hi.  A while ago I reported a boot issue with SUSE 9.3, whereby I'm just
getting a grub prompt.  Someone replied, saying this is a menu.  Not here it
isn't.  It's just a prompt with a flashing cursor.  I've only just got sighted
help to check this out.  No matter what I do from the GRUB prompt, I get an
error on screen.  This is definitely not the way that the previous versions of
SUSE installers worked.  Is there anywhere I can download the installation and
administration manuals, as in the printed editions?  Those are currently
inaccessible and if I can't download them I may have to waste hours scanning
them, <smile>.  But I have to say that my initial comments on what little I've
seen of SUSE 9.3, what a waste of money ... won't even boot into the installer
on the bootable CD.  I hope this isn't a sign of things to come, now that Novel
has its hands on the product.
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don gentner | 5 May 2005 20:13
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Re: Boot Issues Revisited

Hi Gordon,

The best way to fix your problem is to reload Suse
9.3.
What you should first do is hit the F2 or Delete key
when you first start up your computer to get into the
bios setup so you can set up the boot order to boot to
the CD Drive first. It may be set up to boot to the
Hard drive first so it does not get to the CD Drive to
boot to Install Suse 9.3.  I hope this is clear. The
boot order has to be set to boot to Cd first  to
install. This should fix your problem. Suse 9.3 is a
great Operating System.

Don Gentner

  --- Gordon Smith <gordon <at> tft-bbs.co.uk> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Hi.  A while ago I reported a boot issue with SUSE
> 9.3, whereby I'm just
> getting a grub prompt.  Someone replied, saying this
> is a menu.  Not here it
> isn't.  It's just a prompt with a flashing cursor. 
> I've only just got sighted
> help to check this out.  No matter what I do from
> the GRUB prompt, I get an
> error on screen.  This is definitely not the way
> that the previous versions of
(Continue reading)

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Gordon Smith | 5 May 2005 20:48
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Re: Boot Issues Revisited


I guess this was a CC of the private mail you just sent me Don.  As I said,
this isn't right I'm afraid.  The boot sequence is already set correctly at the
BIOS level.  That's confirmed by the fact that the CD is booting to a Grub
prompt.  The hard drive has no partition on it whatsoever, and there is no
floppy present.

At 11:13 05/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:

Hi Gordon,

The best way to fix your problem is to reload Suse
9.3.
What you should first do is hit the F2 or Delete key
when you first start up your computer to get into the
bios setup so you can set up the boot order to boot to
the CD Drive first. It may be set up to boot to the
Hard drive first so it does not get to the CD Drive to
boot to Install Suse 9.3.  I hope this is clear. The
boot order has to be set to boot to Cd first  to
install. This should fix your problem. Suse 9.3 is a
great Operating System.
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Alain Vitry | 8 May 2005 21:39
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Re: Boot Issues Revisited

Documentation can be found at:
User manual:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse93/pdfdoc/user93-screen/user93- 
screen.pdf

Admin manual:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse93/pdfdoc/admin93-screen/ 
admin93-screen.pdf

Regards,
Alain

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Gordon Smith | 8 May 2005 23:57
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Re: Boot Issues Revisited

Thank you very much for this, you just saved me hours of work.

At 21:39 08/05/2005 +0200, Alain Vitry said:

>Documentation can be found at:
>User manual:
>http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse93/pdfdoc/user93-screen/user93- 
>screen.pdf
>
>Admin manual:
>http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse93/pdfdoc/admin93-screen/ 
>admin93-screen.pdf

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Um eine Liste aller verfügbaren Kommandos zu bekommen, schicken
Sie eine Mail an:
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Gordon Smith | 9 May 2005 13:51
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Accessibility removed


Hi.  Well, I managed to get SUSE 9.3 installed this morning.  Sadly, however,
it seems that the commitment to making SUSE accessible right from the ground up
has disappeared, along with the acquisition of the operatingg system by Novell.
  Unless there is something I have missed, the installation is now totally
inaccessible to blind people.  This, from my perspective at least, is a huge
step backwards.  Since, now that I have it installed, I can't do anything with
it.  I can't even change any settings, because I have no access to the KDE
desktop.  So unless this changes in some way, looks like SUSE was indeed a
waste of money, and is now dead in the water for blind people.  It may be
useful once you get it installed with accessibility options enabled.  But there
doesn't seem to be any easy method of doing that.  The requests for help from
SUSE themselves have so far been totally ignored.  In other words, I've hit a
brick wall which, it seems, there's no way around.  At least Redhat went out of
their way to compile kernels which give accessibility from the ground up.  Ah
well, come back Fedora ... all's forgiven.  But unless things change radically
again for the better, looks like I'll just have to put SUSE down to experience,
and move on.
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don gentner | 10 May 2005 04:12
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Re: Accessibility removed

Hi Gordon,  I have some good news. I called Novell and
  was able to talk to one of Novell's Linux Tech's and
he helped me check out Suse 9.3 Professional from
there Web site and we found that blinux is still a
package
in Suse 9.3. 

They have not removed it.

Blinux is a package in there Hardware Package Group of
Packages and called SBL. The package is not installed
by default but is on the Suse 9.3 CD's and DVD's and
can be installed by Yast. 

I went to one of my Suse computers and started up Yast
and went to Software and then Install Software and
then did a search in Hardware Package Groups for SBL
and there it is. You can check the box and then Yast
will 
ask for the Suse CD or DVD and it will install the
package. 

Now I know this is not going to be easy for you
because you can't point and click your way through all
of this as I was able to. But the blinux Package is
still in Suse and I think its an upgraded program
because its SBL 2.2 .

The bad news is that Novell doesn't offer support for
blinux so you can't call a Novell tech for help.
(Continue reading)

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Gordon Smith | 10 May 2005 13:15
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Re: Accessibility removed


Hi Don.  Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses SUSE at all.  When I said it
had been removed, I meant that it has been removed from the kernels.  So it no
longer comes up at boot time.  From our point of view, this means I don't have
a prayer of installing it, All the people I have spoken too on the subject, one
of whom is a blind LINUX programmer, responsible for authoring the Supercast
audio streaming server, tell me to ditch SUSE and go back to Fedora, for which
there is a talking installation available.  In fact, one of them has even gone
so far as to kindly upload the images of the CD's to me.  So at this point it
looks like I'll reluctantly have to go that route.  I need to get this project
off the ground, to be honest.  I don't have the time to spend hunting for stuff
within SUSE.  I just feel saddened that I'm coming up against a brick wall with
SUSE every which way I turn.  I want to thank you for your efforts to help
here.  I'm still very much interested if someone could come up with something
to help.  But the only way I could do anything with this OS would be if there
is some kind of accessibility by default.  Novell, in their infinite wisdom,
have removed this.  Thus effectively precluding the accessibility users from
their product.  It's all very well their talking about all the accessibility
products which SUSE supports.  But they don't make it possible for a visually
impaired user to install the operating system without third-party help.  I was
planning on doing a review of SUSE for a radio station run by the American
Council Of The Blind, for which I do voluntary work.  However, my review will
now have to be just a few lines in length.  It will read something like:
Good product, potentially anyway.  However, accessibility by default is 0 and,
as such, this LINUX distribution isn't one I can recommend.
What a shame that Novell got their hands on what used to be an excellently well
laid out operating system.

At 19:12 09/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:
(Continue reading)

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don gentner | 11 May 2005 02:52
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Re: Accessibility removed

Hi Gordon,  Yes I guess you have to go with what works
best for you right now and it sounds like Fedora is
the best right now. I still feel bad about Suse or I
should say Novell not loading the blinux package by
default.

I have installed and used both Suse and Redhat/Fedora
and Fedora is very good but I have found Suse to be a
little easyer and more polished than Fedora.

Anyway I will still see if I can find a way around the

install problem.    Don

--- Gordon Smith <gordon <at> tft-bbs.co.uk> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Hi Don.  Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses
> SUSE at all.  When I said it
> had been removed, I meant that it has been removed
> from the kernels.  So it no
> longer comes up at boot time.  From our point of
> view, this means I don't have
> a prayer of installing it, All the people I have
> spoken too on the subject, one
> of whom is a blind LINUX programmer, responsible for
> authoring the Supercast
> audio streaming server, tell me to ditch SUSE and go
(Continue reading)

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Gordon Smith | 11 May 2005 03:51
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Re: Accessibility removed

Hi Don.  If there's a way, I'd love to hear about it.  Frankly, I feel 
cheated that this information wasn't posted when Novell's announcement of 
availability was posted to this list which, as the list name implies, 
specialises in accessibility issues.

At 17:52 10/05/2005 -0700, don gentner said:

>Hi Gordon,  Yes I guess you have to go with what works
>best for you right now and it sounds like Fedora is
>the best right now. I still feel bad about Suse or I
>should say Novell not loading the blinux package by
>default.
>
>I have installed and used both Suse and Redhat/Fedora
>and Fedora is very good but I have found Suse to be a
>little easyer and more polished than Fedora.
>
>Anyway I will still see if I can find a way around the
>
>install problem.    Don
>
>
>
>
>--- Gordon Smith <gordon <at> tft-bbs.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > Hi Don.  Nobody in my area that I'm aware of uses
(Continue reading)

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Gmane