Problem booting install floppy/cdrom (cracked previously)

[Mark Dalton <mwd@sgi.com>]

Princeton Univ. got cracked into this last weekend _heavily_.  My friend
out there is a prof. and asked for help..  We got most of it cleaned up.

However, his workstation is hosed..
	I cannot (as root) edit/delete/copy files like /etc/inetd.conf
		(even via rpm --force)
	ps  - is screwed up (I have a script to check the ps)
	who - is also screwed up

They should not be able to access the machines in my friends department
(but others are affected, I still see some doing port scans of 'our' 
 machines).  EVERYONE is in /etc/hosts.deny (ALL : ALL), and we just
 allow the machines we need to in /etc/hosts.allow. (We will fine tune
 later).  And only allow external access via ssh.

Anyway, we are trying to now install from scratch, one machine worked
fine to reinstall.  But another _duplicate_ machine booted from the 
install floppy just fine. (running RedHat 5.1, yes, they did not
upgrade...argggg...).

By default:
	- The boot does not seem to 'see' the floppy even after we changed
	   the BIOS to look at drive 'a' first.  
	- We also tried the same for the CDROM (by having the CDROM be the
	   primary boot device, however, it is a SCSI CDROM.
	   We did try the LILO: linux scd0=cdrom

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? On how to get this machine
cleaned up/upgraded?
  The main two issues:
	- why root cannot modify files like /etc/inetd.conf
	- why the system will not boot from the install floppy
	  (it still works on other systems).

(It is sort of hard to 'hack' out a solution, when he is in New Jersey,
 and I am in MN.  Also computers are a tool for him, he is not used to
 installation, admin or data security).

Mark
-- 
Mark Dalton       CH3-S-CH2 H                      H      O       H
Silicon Graphics, Inc.  |   |                      |       \      |
Eagan, MN 55121         CH2-C-COO    //\ ---C--CH2-C-COO    C-CH2-C-COO
mwd@sgi.com                 |       |  ||   ||     |       //     |
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My home page: http://www.cbc.umn.edu/~mwd/mwd.html
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