hi I am completley new to linux and am trying to install redhat on vmware, I can't get it to boot up and get to the desktop enviroment.

I typed in username root, password my pwd from install, and startx because I read that's what you type to get to the desktop, but that bringes me to root@localhost root # don't know what to type so typed startx again, that just brings me to a bunch of erros (see screanshot) and all the wile the screan is blinking (meaning turning all black and then coming back to text every 10 seconds) any ideas on what is going on here?

screanshot: http://www.picgoo.com/uploads7/screenshot.jpg

thanks

That screenshot shows that you're running Fedora Core 2, not Red Hat 9. Going by my previous install of FC2, it boots straight into runlevel 5 (Which should be your GUI). What I suggest is to change your runlevel in /etc/inittab from 5 to 3.

Just use a text editor to change the following text in /etc/inittab

to

Save, restart and then once your logged in again, try startx.

It's a long shot, but this should make sure that no GUI is running. Just 'ps aux |less' after you reboot to make sure.

Kristijan

how do I get to text editor? I can't get to the desktop, tried typing it in after [root@localhost root]# but it said "no such file or directory."

the iso images i downloaded were labled "RedHat Linux 9 FC2-I386.iso" 4 disks but you are probably right my bad, is FC2 a ok OS for someone cerious about linux who wants to learn or should I not be bothering with this instalation and download the proper files. thanks

My suggestion for someone starting out with Linux is to grab a copy of Knoppix [1]. It boots off the CD, and will not mess around with your Windows partitions. It's also good for a rescue disk. Give it a shot, dont be scared to play around with the commands, you shouldn't be able to do to much damage Another good site is The Linux Documentation Project [2]. It has a huge selection of HOW-TO's and other Linux related info.

Good Luck

Kristijan

[1] - http://www.knoppix.org/
[2] - http://www.tldp.org/

thanks a lot I am downloading it right know