i changed my default runlevel from 3 to 4, 4 being graphical logon, and after i enter my username and password, the thing dowsn't boot to my windowmanager. xfce is default, i tryed going into gnome but no dice. the logon is a gnome graphical logon, any ideas?

id like to boot in graphical mode can anyone tell me how, if not how can i get to the command prompt to edit my inittab file?

Using anyone of the F1-F6 keys along with a CTRL + ALT will give you a terminal.

Then you can use whatever your favorite text editor is, lets say vi:
vi /etc/inittab
Should open it.

Try 5 instead? Maybe 5 will work for you better than run level 4. Just an idea, I really have no idea though.

COol

Any type of errors given ?? When your signing in, is it graphical or is it at a command ?

And if you are using Slack, the correct runlevel for graphical is 4.

Oh, thanks tricky.

no errors, and it's graphical. when i installed i made it boot to command because of the xwindow issues i knew id have, but now since i only use my box in graphical mode i decided to change to a graphical boot, to save time. when the password box pops up i enter my user and password and hit enter. the thing goes black then pops the user and password box up again. i want to boot to xfce and i am running slack. no errors are given that i can see. is there a file i could browse to see if somehing crashed?

I know it might be a pain in the .... hole to startx from a console and see GNOME desktop fr instance, to see something new you have to edit .xinitrc file. What if your preferences change often you have to edit it over and over again, may I suggest a little perl script that allows you to start X with any Window Manager of your choice with little or no modification to this perl script. Please welcome sdx11
It is small and configurable (plain perl). I edited it to include -nolisten tcp option to startx command as well as added the ability to use my favorite fluxbox (by default it comes with ability to boot into GNOME, KDE, Afterstep, Enlightenment, Black Box, Window Maker, xfce, IceWM, Ude, SawMill, Fvwm2. And it only takes to login to console and run sdx -your favorite wm. You can also add any programs tthat you want to start along with window manager or desktop environment.

it seems as though this program your recommending just changes the default window manager then the user does startx and the thing starts. im looking to shave milliseconds off my boot time by not having to startx. i want it to boot automatically. is what i said about your prog correct neo?

Yep pretty much, sorry I didn't get the initial question, but I don't think these milliseconds are significant, look after all the services are initialized the system is going into runlevel defined in /etc/inittab, if it is 4 (slack's X, right?) then system starts gdm/kdm/xdm (whichever suits your setup better), it looks for an available tty and starts desktop manager, you're presented with login screen (unless you want it to boot into X without even asking you for password, I know in Mandy you can do so somewwhere in login manager section of Control Center, or by setting an appropriate system profile - honestly Ihave no clue how to do so, at least I was looking for command line versions, GUI is too bloated for me, and I have no clue what tools are invoked when you set your security level to as low as possible). Then it does authantication via pam modules and /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, it looks for a DISPLAY variable and invokes startx. In the case of runlevel 3 you are presented with login screen, you login -> authantication -> you type startx. I don't know which one is faster - going through GUI or typing sdx -fb (or !s which is the last command executed starting with letter s and it is almost always sdx for me, unless I don't boot into X to do some kernel compilation and quit out).

Maybe the command xwmconfig is what you're looking for.

i changed my default runlevel from 3 to 4, 4 being graphical logon, and after i enter my username and password, the thing doesn't boot to my windowmanager. xfce is default, i tryed going into gnome but no dice. the logon is a gnome graphical logon.
xwmconfig doesn't solve my problem.

when i did ctrl+alt+ various f#keys, i was changed to another terminal but could not enter anything into it. all it did was display a blinking dash symbol. still cannot boot into gui or command yet, any other ideas?

would it work if i booted from a boot disk?... i dont have a linux boot disk.

I have zipslack installed and when I run X window I can get a terminal by pressing ctrl+alt+f6.

ive tried using all f numbers. ctrl+alt+f1 - f12, none work.