I decided to make the linux switch on my older laptop. I have been using knoppix for a few weeks and I like it so much I would like to make linux my main operating system.

Which brings me to this forum. I have tried to install SUSE linux and FreeBSD (I know its not linux) on my older laptop and KDE doesnt seem to be working on either OS. When it boots all I get is a command prompt. I installed the same software on my desktop and everything is just peachy. When I use Knoppix on my laptop KDE works just fine (it loads automatically at boot). And though its old i know the hardware can support it. I also tried loading KDE with the "start kde" command and I get a "cannot load x windows error". Any suggestions?

I am still learning the ropes here so I am GUI dependant for now. It would be a big help if anyone could point me in the right direction. Thanks in adavnce.

you need to run startx to "start X" if it doesnt load KDE you will have to change your .xinitrc file

erm ... what sort of system is it?
is KDE installed?

The system's is an old dell laptop. its running 256 megs of ram, a 5400rpm 40 gig drive but the processor is only a 300mhz pentium II which does concern me. However windows 2K ran beautifully on it.

As far as KDE being installed, it is. When try to run KDE I get an error message that refers to startx over and over again ( i have to reboot to get it to stop). What is an xinitrc. file? I've pretty much been microsoft dependant so I have limited knowledge outside of that area.

.xinitrc is a file which resides in your home directory that tells X which windowmanager to start.
Did you try running startx??

yes, when i run startx i get error initializing it over and over again.

create a file in your home directory called .xinitrc with the leading .
and put this into it

#!/bin/sh
startkde

then try startx again? if it doesnt work could you post the error msg?

you computer should be fast enough.. I have KDE 3.2 running on a Pentium 2, 128MB ram, and it runs fine (okay, don't do to much at once ).

anyways, it might help if you post the contents of /var/log/XFree86.0.log here after you've run 'startx'.
This is the logfile of the X-server, so if anything goes wrong, this file says what went wrong.

I appreciate all of the suggestions and I tried all of them and here is what happened so far:
1. I tried running startx but I got no love, here is what happened:
A bunch of stuff tries to run and start and every thing looks like it might work out for me but then I get two errors: Unable to locate/open config file and error from xf86handleconfigfile()
2. I tried the "startkde" suggestion from dopefish but I got an error that says
"xsetroot: unable to open display
startkde startkde starting up
startkde: running kdepersonalizer
kwin: cannont connect to xserver"
then i get an error that says kdepersonalizer:cannont connect to x server over and over again focing a reboot to stop it

any thoughts?

OK sounds like you need an XF86Config file, try running xf86config

Thanks dopefish that did it. I ran xf86config a few times until I got the settings tweaked and now its up and running. Thanks to everyone else who replied, it was appreciated.