Markus, I am at work and unable to check out the list (drying in the bathroom, also got a coffee bath) of what I ch modd'd so far. For grins and kicks I did copy over my ppp options file from BH4 to BH7a and it did cure the noauth glitch for root under user but no joy for user. Will report back tonight. Your contribution looks familiar, but it gets to be blur after awhile If I haven't tried it, you bet I will. Will take me a little while tonight to get spare keyboard and mouse.

Yes, also drowned my good optical mouse this morning. It was caught in the "moat" between my gel wrist rest and the IBM heavy. I took it apart, still working and am letting it air. I just have to figure out how to put it back together. Had to take it all apart to get at the coffee between the circuit board and the optical lens' plastic plate.

Cuddles: It's a real modem. External serial. Shows up TTYS0 for root. IBM keyboard is black, heavy and fairly clicky - but it is ps2 not din. Were there any buckling spring kbs with ps2 connector? There is definitely a plate in there. I love my heavy IBM. Hope rust isn't snaking its heartless way through its guts grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Baldyeti: I full well expected I was going to have problems booting my old install & don't blame linux at all; don't ask for it to be superintuitive in that regard. I do wish developers and engineers thought about us bottom feeders in the technology pond and I posted specifics on my problems to a general linux help forum. Generally ask for technical help here now because I am running a different distro. I come to the Lounge because the folks here are great moral support as well. It is the first place I think of coming to when I need to rant or a shoulder to cry on