In case it may be of help to someone in the future, this is how I got into
my printer troubles.
I installed Windows98, Redhat 6.2, and Debian Potato on three separate
partitions of my hard drive. I dutifully made boot floppies for Redhat and
Debian. However, Redhat gives you no choice about lilo, it installs it
whether you want it or not. It can be removed by using fdisk /mbr in
Windows, but I decided that as long as I had it, I would add Debian to it.
I used linuxconf in Redhat, entered the Debian partition,and the location
in Debian, i.e. /boot/vmlinuz2.2.19pre17. Linuxconf refused to accept it. I
then remembered that in some earlier linux installations, lilo insisted on
vmlinuz without anything else. Therefore, I changed vmlinuz2.2.19pre17 to
vmlinuz and linuxconf accepted it. Using lilo, I booted into Debian and saw
the Debian programs.
What I didn't know was that lilo took the vmlinuz from the Redhat boot
directory not the Debian boot directory. It did not care that it had been
referred to the Debian partition. I thus ended up with the Redhat kernel
and Debian accessories, which didn't work together.
Subsequently, I learned that a could copy vmlinuz2.219pre17 from the Debian
boot directory to the Redhat boot directory and then use the full name in
linuxconf. With this lilo boots each of the three operating systems correctly.
Why I can't get onto the internet with either version of linux remains a
mystery. At the moment, I still feel that it is a BIOS problem, but I can't
find anything to change.
