I didn't create a boot disk, if you mean floppy. I installed CentOS to a second hard disk drive. I then created the boot.lnx file with which didn't work so I then tried which also didn't work. The df command revealed both. In both cases I get nothing. When, however, I try to boot directly to the drive using F9 to select the POST boot menu, then at least I get "Missing OS."

Yes, in both cases, I copied the file to C:\. But if the problem is that it's a USB drive, I guess I can fix that by connecting the drive directly. The only reason I have it as a USB drive is that it's a misc. drive I just had sitting around and I connected it with a universal drive adapter to "just see."

I do not know the difference between /dev/sdb1 and /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 - when I did a df they both appeared so I thought I would try both. Possibly one is the HDD with Windows on it, I don't know. All these cryptic abbrevs., I don't know what they mean because I'm used to drive letters and a command prompt that tells me where I am in the file system.

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Update - connecting the drive via SATA instead of USB did the trick. I formatted, connected via SATA, installed, and went from there.

the linux.bin file to create, it turns out, was the one from /dev/sdb1..., not /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00.... I'm not sure if it made a difference because, just as with balancing my checkbook, once you get things working, STOP THERE.

Now, if I only knew how to unload Gnome so I could try KBE, and how to see a context-sensitive prompt, and how to get an underscore cursor instead of a block cursor, and how to get terminal output in white instead of dark blue (on black), and..., and..., and..., and.... Um, well thanks for listening.