Hi!

My problem is that I can't get the computer to boot up properly. To be precise, when RedHat is starting up and is going to the login window, the window just freezes and I'm not able to log in at all. The problem started yesterday when some problems in KDE were troubling and I figured that I should log out and back in again, but then the log in window suddenly was freezing. So now I can't use the computer at all and that is very critical...

I have no idea how to solve this problem and I really don't want to lose any data. I tried to insert a RedHat CD and type "linux rescue", but I have no idea how to get any further. Can any of you think of what the problem is? Do I have to reinstall some packages? If so, what should it be?

Thanks in advance

When you boot with the CD, type "rescue" (without quotes of course) at the boot prompt and you should get a short menu of choices one of which is to restore boot. This should fix your problem.

Thanks for the reply.
I've tried to type "rescue" after booting but I really don't know what to do afterwards. I have no manuals to read. I get a prompt, but have no clue what to write to fix this issue... I have never encountered this problem before. Do you have any suggestions?

I still haven't fixed this problem.
Looks like the only thing that has crashed is kdm, the KDE Display Manager. When I try to run kdm from bash, it starts up but freezes and hangs almost immediately.
Is there a way of only reinstalling kdm on the computer?

i use RH9, but i assume RH8 is similar....when you
boot the install CD, you should get a text install screen
type:
linux rescue
this will find your current linux setup and mount it on
/mnt/sysimage
now you want this to be under / instead of /mnt/sysimage
so type:
chroot /mnt/sysimage
now you can access your files...if your kdm (KDE display manager)
is hosed, you can get into x without it....
cd /etc
vi inittab
find the line that says something like
:id:5:initdefault
this is the default runlevel, in your case it should say 5, which
will run your graphical login screen
if you change this 5 to a 3 you will have a text login screen
after logging in type startx
p.s. be very careful when editing your inittab...only change the
5 to a 3....dont mess with anything else.
once you get in to X, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling
your kdm, or change to gnome, or whatever
goog luck

Thanks. My initdefault is set to 5, so I'll try to change it to 3 as you suggest. Is using "apt-get update kdm" the best way of updating kdm?

ive never really used apt, i usually just download the new
rpms and use rpm -U (update)
but once you get into X, you can just go into your menu
and find add/remove programs, then remove kdm (dont
try to remove all of kde, since you will currently be using it)
and then have it reinstall it, this should(i think), reinstall
all of the default settings.

Ok, I have to try this out, if I'll be able to access X that is. After the first crash I have only been able to access text-based RedHat, and I kinda like GUI more

Unfortunatly, as I thought, I'm unable to get into X after rebooting and after all the suggestions you guys have come up with. Appreciate it anyway.
But I really don't wanna reinstall the entire OS only because of some display manager crashing. I have tried to fetch kdm throught apt-get, with no success, so I found one on rpmfind. But after installing the rpm, nothing happens. I have no idea if kdm really has updated, cause it hangs like there's no tomorrow still...
I have tried everything from startx to gdm, kdm, xdm, but none is working. What happens with gdm and kdm is that they show a green screen with a watch-looking cursor in the middle. Then it hangs and doesn't show the Redhat login window... But with xdm I get this XFree86 login window, but even when typing the root passord I don't get through...
Man, this is so frustrating... And writing this using Lynx isn't very convenient either...

If anyone knows about a magical cure for this, I would truely appreciate that.

if you changed your default runlevel to 3, and used startx, I dont think
the x display manager should be running at all (its not on my machine)
if you are still having problems, maybe they run deeper than just the
display manager
what happens when you use startx?
if when you start in runlevel 3, the display manager starts anyway,
its probably starting in your /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/

also, have you considered running the redhat install on the cd,
then choose "update" instead of "new install"?

you should be able to just update the gnome and kde packages....

i think the best way is boot from cd
type linux rescue
and then install grub-install /dev/hda(your boot partition)
and then edit the menu.lst file