GUI (Apparently named X) Doesn't Boot with openSuSE 10.2
 

How do I make it boot? Maybe it didn't install correctly, in which case I do what? It's driving me insane.

You should add more information. Do you see the graphical login screen or just a terminal.

As root if you enter "init 3" and the "init 5", see if kdm or gdm starts up and allows you to login.

If not try "init 3" to start in a known state. Then enter "startx" and if you don't end up in kde or gnome, what where the errors.

One possible problem is that your monitor isn't selected or your video driver needs to be installed. Post what video card you use.

If it is an nvidia card, then:
1) enter as root: init 3 to enter console mode.
2) enter "tiny-nvidia-installer --update" to download and start the latest nvidia driver. You will just need to accept the license and select "Yes" at the options.

Afterwords, run "sax2"

I'm sorry, maybe I totally misunderstood your post. Do you mean that you don't even get the grub menu when you power up the computer?

I see a terminal. As for the inits, you want me to do that after I've logged into the terminal?

As for video card, I'm on a ATI Radeon 9200SE.

GRUB works fine, but I go into a terminal.

There are many posts on this site concerning installing ATI video cards. You may not be able to enable 3D on the latest cards however. I guess that ATI is slow in releasing drivers for linux.

Yes, I meant after logging into the console as root.
"init 3" switches to a console only mode. "init 3" switches to the multiuser/X windows mode.

"startx" starts the x windows system and may start kde or gnome or whatever you selected. However in SuSE there may be permission problems running "startx" and you should log in the regular way from the gdm login screen.

If you don't have the kde or gnome packages installed, you can run the software installation program from the console as well. You need to be root to do this, so log into the console as root.
/sbin/yast2 sw_single

It will run an ncurses version of the same graphical yast2 module.

The program to setup graphics is called "sax2". If you don't have the ATI driver installed yet, you could use the universal "vesa" driver instead.

Your "Device" entry in /etc/X11/xorg.conf will be different:
Changing the Driver entry to "vesa" may allow you to login graphically. Then you can setup ATI at a later time.

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After trying "init 5", if there is an error and the xorg server doesn't start up, then look in the log file indicated; it will be the latest Xorg.XXX.log in /var/log/.

2 questions. Is root the original user?
And I just type init 5?

I'll try this now, from what I can understand, I'm a complete linux noob, and how do I change the graphic driver to vesa?

Edit: I typed 'startx' minus the quotes, and it came up with "Fatal Error: no screens found."

I typed init, init 3 and init 5, nothing worked. I didn't try sax2 though.

root is the super user. During the installation you will also have entered a regular user. Only root can edit files in /etc/. A regular user has a home directory in /home where he has full permissions.
There are two ways. One is in the sax2 program. The other is to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file manually.

You can use any editor as root. From the console, try using "vim"
vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You can use the search function to jump ahead to the Device section. Type in exactly:
/Section "Device"

Now curser down 2 or 3 lines to the Driver "<something>" line.
Press the "i" key or the "a" key to enter the edit mode. Cursor over to the <something> in quotes and delete what is inside the quotes. Replace it with the word "vesa".

So the line should look like
Now press the [ESC] key to exit the edit mode.
enter
:wq
to save the file and exit the editor.

Now try "init 3" and "init 5" again to see if the graphical system is working.

Root and no password?

Nevermind, I successfully logged into root. I will copy down the manual edit instructions and see what happens.

Oh well, I tried, no luck. I'ma go mandrake or fedora. Thanks for trying.

It never ceases to amaze me, how many guru's go out of their way with lengthy posts trying to help a newbie, only to get:

Oh well, didn't work, I'ma try Mandrake or Fedora"

I couldn't believe his last reply. Man, good luck with that too Xero

Kudos to you guys that go out your way to help a newbie. I was always helped in a fast and efficient manner when I had install questions. Keep up the good work !!