Well, I have been up and running RedHat for about eight hours and have have broken it already. That is what I am here for. OK, I was in /etc and did a sysunconfig or something of the like. Well, right away the system crashed. I rebooted and a config menu(blue screen) came up. Went through it and it again crashed as it started X...by itself by the way. Before I ran the command(sysunconfig), the default run-level was init 3 and it looks like it is now configured as init 5 since X is starting and crashing right away. So, what I need to do is be able to run xf86config to change the X settings and change the default runlevel. I am running grub as I think this matters. The only problem is I don't know how to get to a point in which I am at the command line with the linux partitions I need are mounted. This is probably easy but I don't have a clue how to do it. I also don't know how to change the default run level. Like I said I am brand new to Linux. Oh yeah,I am almost running Rehat8.0.

First things first, lets fix your default run level so you can test X.

from the command prompt login as root. (If you can't get to a command prompt because x keeps trying to restart just hit "CTRL+ALT+F5")

edit your /etc/inittab file
- vi /etc/inittab
- arrow down to the line that says "id:5:initdefault:"
- press "i" to insert text
- change the 5 to a 3
- hit ESC
- type ":wq" to wite and quit
now your default runlevel is set to 3.

now change to runlevel 3 by typing:
- telinit 3
(This will keep X from trying to restart while you are fixing stuff)

type startx to start xwindows. It will probably try to start and then crash. look at the error message it gave and you might be able to figure out what line of the XF86Config file it is crashing on.

If you are having trouble post the error message.

Also give us a list of your hardware, the version of Red Hat you are using, etc.

Not sure what you mean by "blue screen" , but if you mean X starts and then freezes you can kill the Xserver and get to the command line by CRTL-ALT-BACKSPACE (might be delete?).

To get back to default run level 3, cd to /etc and open the file inittab using a text editor (vi or whatever). There should be a line that says: id:5:initdefault. Change this to say id:3:initdefault. Save changes and reboot. It should drop you into the command line and your partitions should all be mounted.

From there you can reconfigure the Xserver. In RH8 you have to run redhat-config-XF86Config or something resembling that. In pre-RH8 you have to run Xconfigurator.

OK, I went into the /etc/inittab and the runlevel was 3. Hmmm. So, when I go from single user to runlevel 3 the screen flashes as though it is starting X and then crashes. Freezes...no key combination gets me out of it. I see no error messages, just a blank screen. Not even CTRL-ALT-DELETE. The blue screen I referred to was the network configuration screen.

Are you still getting a network configuration "blue screen" on bootup after you changed to runlevel 3 or are you now able to boot to the command line?

If your still getting a config screen (which is probably anaconda), then you broke alot more than X and may just want to reinstall to save yourself from having to reconfigure everything.

If your able to boot into the command line and then X crashes when you run startx. Then just run redhat-config-xfree86 in order to fix your Xserver settings.