I think I messed up my mandrake install.
 

Hi, Today is my first day trying to install Mandrake 9.2, I downloaded the ISO's and burned them as instructed etc. I am running a pentium MMX 233 mhz, 20g maxtor hd, 64 mb of ram. I will be up front and honest, Linux is new to me and I have no idea what I am doing, for the most part. I installed mandrake and when it boots up it goes to text login, asks me to log into the localhost. I thought this was supposed to boot up with xwindows? anyway my question is, how do I erase everything and start all over, I don't care if it wipes everything out, I don't want to run windows, on this machine. I tried booting from the cd's again and when I click install, it doesn't even go the first screen, (the choose your language screen) anymore, instead it gives me an error that says, install exited abnormally :-( -- received signal 7. I tried to do a rescue but it tells me "caution you are tying run rescue on a system with a low memory configuration, system may crash at any point or lock up for no apparent reason. Continue at your own risk. What does this mean exactly? and again is there a way I can just start all over?

why start over?
just because it says login at the prompt, doesn't mean you dont' have X ...
just log in with the user you made during setup, and if you didn't make one then login as root and you will need the password you also supplied during the setup ....
and then type :
startx
and see if you installed X, and if so, then it will fire up ..

K i tried logging in as root, there was no password needed, anyway, I tried startx and it gave me this error, execve failed for /etc/X11/X (errno 2)
giving up.
xinit: No Such File or directory (errno 2) Unable to connect to X server
Xinit: No such process (errno 3), what now?

Is there anyone else who has any idea? Does this mean I forgot to install Xwindow? please help, am getting really frustrated. Also, I tried to add a user through the command prompt, and when I get to the password portion, it gives me an error saying, user not known to the authenticated module. So is there not a way that I can completely start over? I'd like to at least know what I am doing. Would appreciate any assistance, thanks.

hi there,

like DrOzz said, go easy .... we just need to find what you did with the Xserver...
what the ouput of :
" XF86Config " ???
what kind of installation you did?? What do you mean with
" there was no password needed"???
you typed the user, "root" in this case, and you received direct the prompt??
people can help you but you need to describe the problem better ...

Regards,

Slackie1000

ok, sorry just a little frustrated is all. anyway yes when I log in as root, it gives me a direct command prompt, doesn't ask for a password. I installed mandrake 9.2. While I was waiting for a reply I tried the xf86 command so that I can try to configure the xwindow, and after I did all that I got an error at the end of the process that says, failed to open filename for writing. Is the Xserver setup an entirely different command? Ozz and slackie, I appreciate all the help. What else do you need to know about my setup?

Mercutio701, when I was a beginner (I am still is, but I won't go back to Windoz), it was easier for me to reinstall than to mess up with the command line. You said you don't care if you wipe off your HD... well, you got lots of free time. I don't advise to wipe off your HD, that's very amaturish, but that's was the quickest way for me in the beginning to solve the problems. After all, I was used to reinstall my continuously crashing Windows twice a year or so.
Check that your video card is compatible. Hardware compatibility is one of the drawbacks of Linux, because hardware vendors work mostly for Mr Gates.

It cant write because isn't ...:(
I suppose that u must install Xfree

type
cd /etc/X11
ls
copy and paste the results here

nightjar, I typed cd/etc/X11 and this is what I get
-bash: cd/etc/x11: No such file or directory. Linuxfond, I can't reinstall because linux isn't allowing me too, I booted up from the installation discs and tried rescue, but I crashes on me, I tried a clean install again, and it does the same. That is why I was wondering is there something else I can do to get everything back to the way I had it, when I started, that is, blank hard drive etc. At this point I am open to any suggestions, I appreciate everyone's help, by the way, linuxfond, nice screenshot, how I envy you lol.. :-)

reboot and insert the CD
UPGRADE ; not install and then you can configure the Xwindows
It's easy; select the desktop you prefer (Mandrake prefer KDE, but u can choose what you want)
At the end the installation program probe your X configuration seeing is it work fine
I suppose that u'll dont have any problem and that u can launch startx !!!
Let me know what happen
:D :confused: :rolleyes: