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[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

> > the following to the loadlin line in BOOT.BAT:
> > -------------
> > devfs=nomount
> > -------------
I put this at the end of the rest of the booti.bat file which included 
bzimage (bare.i) instead of zimage.

> 
> Xvesa -mouse /dev/psaux,5 -screen 1024x768x16 -shadow -nolisten tcp -I 
> &>/dev/null 
> [all on one line]
> 
> I got the grey patterned screen that usually comes on before the colored 
> one arrives using the other system for loading X, with a little x in the 
> middle that moves around when I move the PS/2 mouse, but no colors and no 
> xterm.
> 

Typing Xvesa -help produces the following information, among other things:
Xvesa uses the same options as xkdrive (which is Vesa 1.2 and later) plus 
a few extras:

-shadow    use shadow frame buffer which might make things faster
-nolisten  don't listen on protocol
-I         ignore all remaining arguments

I got the same results when I left out everything after the screen 
resolution.  I also got the same default ps/2 mouse behavior when I left 
out the -mouse /dev/psaux,5 (ps/2 is probably the default).

When I left out the -screen 800x600x32 I got a larger mouse X so the 
default appears to be 640.  I got a smaller X when I used 1024 or 1280.

I can type just Xvesa and get the grey screen with the movable mouse X,
or Xvesa 800x600x16 for a higher resolution screen with X.

Now how do I start an xterm or run a program or even load icewm?
.xinitrc is apparently not used by Xvesa.

The books all assume you are using XConfig86 and startx and .xinitrc.

I tried typing Xvesa -e xterm & and various other things with no success.

Once I get to an xterm I can fix the keyboard with xmodmap.\

If this works I will investigate kdrive but would I need to compile it 
first?  It should be usable with any VESA 1.2 video card so be 
more suitable for bl2.  This might be a lot easier than dealing with 
xf86config and modes, plus you can specify the resolution and color depth 
more simply in case you don't want the same default every time.

Lynx compilation gave me another error message.  Doug suggests I compile 
openssl on my own computer (it is much larger and more complicated than 
lynx itself) to be sure things end up in the right place.  What faith in 
my abilities!

sindi keesan