need help with mandrake plzzz...

[kc2gub]

i installed mandrake, no problems, i get to the login screen, and type my name and pw, all good so far, then the next prompt is kc2gub.localhost.local domain or something along those lines, by the way kc2gub is just my login name, so now what? and also right after i pick the screen rez the screen goes black and all seems good...is that ok, am i setting the rez to high? (1280x1024, thanks...

 

[hobgadling]

It would help if you post your system specs...When you boot, is it to a command line or to X(ie, is your login screen graphical?)

--Hob

 

[kc2gub]

well, i dunno why my computer spec would matter, i got it to stop doing the black screen by lowering the rez, but it asks for my login name and pw and i type that with no problems, but than it says that weird message in a dos like interface... or text, i think it has to do with my internet or something beause it asks for my host or server or something for dchp, but i dont need that, so i just leave it alone, and it puts localhost.localdomain, etc and thats what is in that odd message...

 

[Confide]

Do you connect to the Internet via Broadband or regular phone lines? Seems like your system gives you that terminal box with "kc2gub.localhost.local" because it wants to connect to a network, what exactly is the problem here? Does your System Sieze up after you get this msg? or does it just come up and then you close it and continue to work normally?

More information on the problem might help in the diagnosis and produce a solution.
Confide

 

[kc2gub]

i have broadband and a network. Nothing locks up, i just put in the login name and pw and then this comes up, like it wants me to type something, ive never actually been into mandrake yet...it won't let me continue...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Sounds like it is either booting into text mode or a terminal has opened up. Either way it sounds like a standard command line prompt and you should start using linux.

 

[kc2gub]

well what do i type at this standard command line, linux is installed fine, it logins fine with my name and pw, then this comes up, so now what?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: kc2gub
well what do i type at this standard command line, linux is installed fine, it logins fine with my name and pw, then this comes up, so now what?

Where do you want to go today? The Linux world is open to you. Enjoy it. Figure out how to use it, Im not going to type out all of the commands for you

 

[kc2gub]

dude how can i enjoy it, ive NEVER EVER actually been into the operating system yet, i got it all installed and this comes up, i cannot actually get into the os...

 

[smp]

type

rm -rf /


no don't do that... but if you want to avoid making those kinds of mistakes go read some stuff. Trust me, this may sound like unpleasant advice now, but you'll learn much better if you read and try things on your own.

wait .. would that work or would it be rm -rf /* ??? I've never used that command myself .....
You are at something called "the command prompt".
I don't understand how you could install linux without knowing what that is. You never thought of RTFM before installing this on your computer? Would you jump in a plane before taking flying lessons? Or at least RTFflyingM ?

 

[kc2gub]

OMFG!!!!!!!! i know what a friggin command prompt is, jesus christ, i know im at a friggin command prompt, but i don't friggin know what to type at this friggin stupid friggin "command prompt" its saying something dumb like localhost.localdomain, and won't let me past.....and well this is my first with linux, i got redhat working fine, but this seems better and i want it, and theres nothing in the friggin manual about this....plz only reply with helpful stuff. im sorry but im just getting so mad, you guys don't understand, this isn't as simple as u think it is... im stuck here..

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: kc2gub
dude how can i enjoy it, ive NEVER EVER actually been into the operating system yet, i got it all installed and this comes up, i cannot actually get into the os...

What you're not quite getting is that this is the operating system. Are there graphical desktops? Sure. Pretty applications with anti-aliased TrueType fonts? Hell yeah. But they're all just window dressing for what you see now. If you don't like the command prompt, then use Mac or Windows, because you'll never escape it in Linux.

Try "startx" to fire up the graphical desktop.

 

[kc2gub]

im in dos like interface, i want the pretty interface they show in the screenshots like i had with redhat 8 but mandrakes looked nicer so i went with this... i do startx and get an error, i guess this is what i want to do is get into the graphical interface...

 

[cleverhandle]

What's the error you're getting from startx, and what's your video hardware? Also, X keeps a log of what's happening at startup. Try reading it with

less /var/log/XFree86.log

Look for lines with "WW" or "EE" - those are warnings or errors. The log file may have a little bit different name (like XFree86.0.log or similar). If you hit the Tab key after typing the "XFree" part, the shell should fill in the rest.

I'm sure Mandrake has some kind of X configuration utility, too, but I don't know what it's called. Check out the docs.

 

[smp]

Is this what your friggin' talking about?

something@localhost.something or other?
That would be your command prompt.


edit: er, the part at the bottom .. the time with stevan@disobey next to it .. that's my prompt, it's a bash prompt. Bash is one of many shells you can use in linux, it's also the default on mandrake (afaik) ..

there are lots of commands that you should know.
Read up on them.
I don't really use X .. I could never get it working right either, unless I was using rehdat or mandrake and that was getting it working out of the box. I never managed to get it working otherwise (like on my debian box)
but .. that's what windows is for.

edit edit: I don't really like X .. KDE and Gnome suck as far as i'm concerned. What's the deal, each one has it's own system configurating tools that aren't the same as the standard CLI tools and I just get confused. Better to learn one thing and stick with that, as far as I'm concerned. All you need X for is surfing the web. All you need to do that is blackbox and mozilla .. or windows.

 

[kc2gub]

yes i get kc2gub.localhost, etc...so i guess thats my command prompt, i type startx and get an error, let me go see what it says exactly...

 

[smp]

Originally posted by: kc2gub
yes i get kc2gub.localhost, etc...so i guess thats my command prompt, i type startx and get an error, let me go see what it says exactly...

That would help.
When you did the install, tell us about the part where it talks about your video hardware, mouse hardware and things like that. You probably fubared something during that setup.
I know that all you want is a pretty desktop so you can post screenshots of it on BBS's, but even to be able to do that, you're gonna have to read up on stuff. Even for that, you'll need the CLI (like if you want to switch from gnome to blackbox or something) .. etc etc
It's much cooler to have a cool /etc/motd than a nice desktop IMO

 

[kc2gub]

i think its my video, everything in the beginning passes, ya know when it does all those checks, it says everythings ok, however when im installing linux and i get to the part about the rez, etc,, i pick my settings, and the screen goes black and i have to restart, ive tried, higher and lower rez's, i did the mulitple head option and also chose my video card... still go black...i have a second video card lying around, ill try that one...

 

[cleverhandle]

Windows solution = throw hardware at it until it works

Linux solution = understand how the hardware works


Pick the right one - check out your error messages, and post them here before you go swapping hardware around.

 

[kc2gub]

i looked up my video card and it says tested and ok for linux, so why it goes blank i dunno, is this the problem or no? heres the error i get after typing startx

execue failed for /etc/x11/x errno 2 no such file directory...ive installed linux 10 times now, no joke, everything goes fine, except for blank screen, i would think this should be working, i may just go back to redhat 8...

 

[cleverhandle]

That's a pretty strange error. The binary that starts up X is usually /usr/X11R6/bin/X, which is a symlink to /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 in current versions of X. Startx seems to be looking for the X binary in /etc/X11 instead. Either this is a) a Mandrake thing or b) something you screwed up during installation. Since you've tried installing a few times, I'm guessing it's choice "a", which means I can't really help you without sitting down in front of a Mandrake box, which I don't have. Perhaps someone who knows Mandrake well can do better.

This, BTW, is exactly why I think distros like RedHat and Mandrake are actually less easy to use than Slackware or Debian. Everything is set up to work automatically with their nifty tools, but if something does go wrong, the file layout and configuration are so customized that no one else can understand it without having that particular version of that particular distro to refer to.

 

[smp]

This, BTW, is exactly why I think distros like RedHat and Mandrake are actually <I>less</I> easy to use than Slackware or Debian. Everything is set up to work automatically with their nifty tools, but if something does go wrong, the file layout and configuration are so customized that no one else can understand it without having that particular version of that particular distro to refer to.

I agree, cept I like redhat better than mandrake and I like debian better than them both. Debian is apparently a "harder" distro for beginners, but it's what I started on and that might be why I think it's easier. I'm still a noob though

 

[n0cmonkey]

/usr/X11R6/bin/xf86config

But whatever you do, dont tell us what hardware you are using!