What now....

[Jock203]

I'm stuck.

I've installed Mandrake 7.2 as a workstation I used the recommended install thing to be on the safe side.

I've chosen it to boot up as X-Windows.

When I boot up I get to a login screen, I enter my details then it takes me to a DOS prompt type thing, I think its Bash or whatever.

What do I do now? How do I get the desktop type thing like windows that I've seen everyone use?

Thanks for any help.

[aef]

There are three posibilities here:

1) Your machine is running X at boot, and then giving you an xterm but not the sort of desktop you were expecting.

2) Your machine is running X boot, but the X server is failing to atart, leaving you with a text terminal.

3) Your machine is not running X at boot.

I think (2) is the most likely.

To exclude the first possibility, what does your login prompt look like? Is it a white-on-black text login prompt on the left hand side of the screen (probably at the top)? Or is it a graphical login box in the centre of the screen?

IF you get a text login, log in and try the command:

startx

It might run X for you (if (3) is the problem), but it's more likely to fail with some errors.

Post here again when you've tried this, with any error messages you get.

AEF

[Jock203]

I think X is running at boot because I get a blue-ish screen that shows me whats being loaded, its not the text version but the graphical one.

At the system state bit it also says 'X-Windowing System'

But once its finished loading everything it drops out to the text login and the screen blinks 4 times I think it was.

I did the 'startx' thing and got the following error messages:

(WW) TDFX: No matching device for instanse (BusID PCI:0:0:0) Found.
(EE) No devices found.

Fatal server error:
No screens found.

[aef]

Ok, it seems that your graphics device isn't working for some reason. Have you configured X? How? Are you sure you got the settings for your graphics card right?

For further diagnostics, we're going to need to look at some files on your system:

/etc/X11/XF86Config

and any files in your /etc directory that have the word 'module' in their name - do

ls /etc/*module*

to get a list of these.

The full output from startx would also be useful. Do:

startx 1> startx.stdout 2> startx.stderr

This will create two files - startx.stdout and startx.stderr in the current directory.

You can cut 'n' paste all of this into a post here (specifying which files are which), or email them to me (gp@aef.oaktree.co.uk).

[Jock203]

I didn't really configure X, it did it all for me. I think I had to choose screen resolution and a monitor, that was it.

When I did the 'startx' command when it cut out and showed me the error messages it showed my gfx card.

Also, I don't see how I can cut and paste into here as I don't have access to the linux partition from windows and I don't have net access from my text prompt.

But I'll get the module list.

Thanks.

[aef]

You can mount your Windows partition under Linux. Say your Windows C-drive is on the first primary partition of disk 1 (which is likely). Then you can access it in the following manner. Do this as root:

cd
mkdir cdrive
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 cdrive/

(You'll need to change hda if that isn't the right partition.) Then your Windows C-drive will be accessible under the cdrive directory. Thus, you should be able to copy your files across to Windows and do whatever you want with them there.

AEF

[Nozzeh]

It's possible X is already running if you chose a graphical logon.

Try pressing Alt+F7.