another learning opportunity...
 

Hokaaay. Had trouble loading the module for ethernet support, so built it into another kernel, edited lilo.conf, FORGOT TO RUN LILO BEFORE REBOOTING, now when I boot I only get one boot option, which is apparently the new kernel, and it hangs before I can get to the login. I used RedHat boot rescue disks for my version (7.1); I get so far into the second disk and then nothing but a cursor at the bottom of the screen. I type in commands and get nothing. There's no prompt, nada, just me talking to myself.

I'd used tomsrtbt before when I screwed something up and was able to repair and move on. This time I can't seem to access anything on my hard drives once I've booted it up. Maybe I've forgotten a step which is crucial but obvious to someone else.

Any help would be welcome. Ridicule is not necessary, as I have that covered. Thx,
Jamie

Managed to boot with the installation cd, but I've been unable to make any useful changes to the contents of my /boot directory. I took everything with the extension .old and made it the current config file, but I still only have one option to boot into, and that boots the new kernel which hangs. During boot I can see lines mentioning eth0 scrolling past, no mention of any problems, then it hangs on a line mentioning usb uhci.

If I can't fix this, then is there some way I can copy the contents of my /home directory so I can access it again after I've installed another distro?

Again, any help would be met with genuine gratitude.