Ok, this is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever done:

1) upgraded the kernel
2) modified lilo.conf to point to the new one
3) didn't run /sbin/lilo (it was really late, I swear)
4, the kicker) *** didn't make a boot disk ***
5) God punishes me for not making a boot disk by causing the power to go off and back on again

When it boots, there is a "ctrl-x for text mode" message, which leads to a "boot: " prompt.

Question:

1) Could I have been any dumber?
2) Is there any way to run /sbin/lilo from this state? Can I do it from single user mode?
3) If 2 is no, is there any way to generate a boot disk, ahem, from windows?

Thanks,
Dave

1) Probably
2) Yes. I don't know what single user mode is about but I think I read that you could get into linux that way and that's what you want.
3) Which distro are you running. Some distro CDs, for example debian's, has a rescue option on it. Then you can login to the command line run lilo and reboot.

Sorry, it is Redhat 7.0-7.3.

Oh, and to make matters worse, this machine doesn't actually have a CD-ROM drive. (don't ask)

And of course I used "rpm -Uvh" not "-ivh" b/c there was a cyclical dependency chain that prevented "ivh" from working (new kernel --> some stuff --> XFree86 --> kernel-drm), so the old kernel doesn't exist any more.

Thanks,
Dave

Have you tried single user mode already then?

Not yet.

The box is actually across the country, and I have to wait for its keeper to return home from work.

However, I decided that I have been doing enough jumping the gun and wanted to get my facts straight before proceeding.

Dave