I am a first timer. I have had to reinstall a few times as part of my learning curve. I just finished a complete (4th) reinstall of Mandrake 9.2. On my last try I was trying to configure My DSL and I think I screwed with network settings that I shouldn't have and I was stuck at a command line. I posted some threads, nothing worked, so I reinstalled.

I just finished install and setup. I got the DSL working and I was browsing with Konquerer. I closed it, went to tinker with desktop settings and open some programs, but I never got a chance to. When I try to open ANYTHING, it either does absolutely nothing or I get "Could not start process - Can't talk to Klauncher?" I coudn't even correct the clock, it would act like it was about to open some sort of window, then I would get "This program has exited abnormally"

I know I'm a noob, but I didn't get the chance to mess anything up this time. I'm considering a quick reboot, but I had this same issue last time and when I rebooted I was stuck at a command line.

And if I do the reboot, it shoud be simply, logout -> restart and that should bring me right back to the desktop not a command line. There isn't a secret Linux step to reboot back to the desktop right?

Any advice would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you in advance . . .
Sean

command "startx" will start your GUI if your in the shell

to refresh/reload the GUI press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE

Thank you Rakreige,

The CTRL + ALT + Backspace did the trick. Now I am typing to you from the LInux box. Was that like a Windows "Ctrl Alt Del" ? It didn't seem to reboot, I guess it just refreshed lke you said.

Was my error something common that requires the refresh? Or is a refresh part of life with Linux?

I really appreciate it,
Sean

its common, The GUI runs as a seperate thread and is still in development,which means it tends to cash. BUT unlike Windows, you can refresh\reload the GUI with out rebooting the system.