i did a bad thing and tried to adjust my video card settings, while doing this, i was asked the question about starting xorg when the computer boots up.... i almost cried, everytime i see that question, regardless of my response, i end up with a command prompt only, my gui go byebye.. so i thought i'd outsmart it by clicking the "x" box to make it go away, but upon rebooting, i discovered that my efforts to avoid the inevitable were futile

the other 30 times this has happened i just ended up re-installing linux after hours of searching the net trying to find out how to get back into my gui and fix it, but this time, damnit, i've done a lot of work and actually gotten quite a few things working, so i'd really much rather not have to wipe everything to get my gui back. so, my question is, does anyone know the command to make the gui start and, also, how to make the gui come on as default everytime i boot up.

i'm using mandriva 2005 LE

thanks in advance.
an idiot

Have you tried startx?

i've tried x, but not startx, i'll give that a shot

WOOHOO!!! all is not lost, for startx works!
thank you, kind sage, you've smited my evilest linux problem
now to get it to stay this way.......

If you want it to boot directly into a gui, you'll need to edit your /etc/innitab file. There's a line in there that defines what run level to boot into. You'll be looking for something like...You'll want to change the 3 to a 5 I believe. It's 4 in Slackware but it's 5 in most distros I believe. This will tell it to boot into a GUI mode rather than a console. Hope that helps.

awesome, that worked, also, clicking yes to question of doom changed it from a 3 to a 5, just in case i forget the name or location of the file
thanks a million guys