What is this Strange Error message?

After reinstalling Yellow Dog on a Mac PowerPC, I got this flashing error message;

According to /var/run/gmd.pid gmd was already running, (number) but seems to have been murdered mysteriously.

It keeps flashing off and on, and will not let me do anything except Control/Alt/Del to restart, then after reloading it starts all over again.

What is going on, and how do I stop it? How do I stop the flasshing screen long enough to log on and and kill what ever (.pid) is running?

See also the following thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...?threadid=2033

It's most likely a problem with your X Windows (your graphical system). Booting into single-user
mode (ie only text/terminal, no graphics) and then reconfiguring your graphical settings should do the trick.

The gmd.pid file is typically a file that stores the Process ID (a number that indicates a specific program) of the "gmd" program (probably related to your X Windows/graphics somehow). If the .pid file exists, then your system "knows" that the gmd program is running and knows it's PID. Programs started automatically at each boot,
such as the scripts in /etc/init.d and most daemons/services that are running, use this pid-file mechanism.
The warning simply sais that:
-the pid file was found, so the "gdm" program should be running
-but it isn't running, so it was "murdered mysteriously" (not to be taken literally). When you stop a prograp, you can use the "kill" command. A program that is stopped in such an abrupt way is said to have been "killed".
Normally, only the users who launched the program and the root user can kill programs.
The term "murdered" here simply implies that someone unknown has "killed" (stopped) the program.

How do I stop it if it keeps flashing and not letting me do anything? Is this a problem with the installation? I just re-installed Yellow Dog after trying LinuxPPC 2000. The first re-installation was a "minimal" install having no graphic login. It ran OK but I re-installed it with the next level and a graphic interface and this problem started.
It is hooked up to a small network with a few Macs running Mac OS X, Mac OS 8.6 and one running Yellow Dog Linux. Can I log in from one or more of these machines and fix the problem? If so, How do I do it? The Macs won't acknowledge it until I turn on AppleTalk or netatalk, Etc., but can I connect with the one machine running Linux without being able to log in and change the network default settings?

Why bother logging into the machine from your other machines?
If you have physical access to the machine, then you can boot to "single user mode", where you
are root, with no graphical stuff at all. In this mode, you can edit your graphical config.

To boot to single user mode, you'll need to some options of your boot loader (grub or lilo). When the machine boots, you'll see a small text that tells you which character you need to press to be able to enter some boot options (ie to go to the grub/lilo command line).
There is surely a command there that allows you to boot into single user mode. Search this forum or Google to find out which command to use.