Essentials:

Experience: very little

What I did: d/l Amigo 2.0.zip to a blank partitioned FAT32 (win98, D drive, unzipped, edited the .bat file as directed, restarted in DOS. Started linux, and got to the login. Logged in as 'root', and then typed 'startx'. The very first time this happened the screen was all out of whack; that is, i couldn't see anything. I could tell that it was supposed to be the GUI side of thiings, but it was all unviewable and lined out, so i could only restart my system.

Now when i restart linux, type 'root', and then type 'startx', the system just reboots. I've actaully reinstalled and done this whole process twice, and the same thing is happening. I even went thru the XF86Config, and anwered everthing, but now at 'startx' it just reboots, no scrabbled screen like on the initial time.

(by the way if you tell me to "edit" a file, how do I "do" that from the # prompt?) i know basic shell commands, but not how to edit, sorry, still reading.

your /var/log/XFree86.0.log should contain helpful info. Your XF86Config file is probably not configured correctly.

for command line file editing, try nano if it's available on your system. Then learn vi .... all the cool kids use vi

cheers!

Firstly, thanks.

D/L'ed nano. opened Xfree86_. log. Referred to xfree86.org. Reading now. Need to know what to edit specifically.

Did you use xf86config to configure the first time? If so, reset the hardware configuration by typing at the command prompt:
/usr/lib/amigosetup/pristine
and then:
/usr/lib/amigosetup/firstrun
This will run hardware condfiguration again, just like when you first install.
Try the EASY method just for kicks and see if it works. Or choose the ADVANCED method which uses Xconfigurator. It will let you test your configuration and back up and change things before exiting.
What is your graphics card?

1. initially i used the autodetect and that resulted in a reboot
2. i tried the xfconfig, and that resulted in reboots (many variatons)
3. i did the above methods /usr/lib/amigosetup/pristine et al., which let me tinker with setting, but again resulted in garble, and then reboot.

....BUT, I had a wild idea....

I rebooted w/ the boot disk, the one that amigo says to make, and i have no idea what difference it made, but i remounted, and voila i'm in.

Now the Q is, how do i get online! Onward & upward

How do you connect to the internet? modem dsl ?

Cable internet from Comca$t

Arghhg! I posted prematurely.
If i remove the boot disk and reboot the system, it crashes as if i'd done nothing.
If i re-install amigo, again, and then use the boot disk, i can get in. But if ever i exit, that's it. In fact, i tried this: re-installed, mounted from boot-disk, started WindowMaker, exited WM, rebooted system w/ boot disk in, and then got these errors:

xauth: unable to linx authority file /root/.Xauthority, use /root/.Xauthority-n

and then

Fatal server error:
Could not create lock file in /tmp/.tx0-lock

then
giving up.
xinit: No such file of directory (errno 2): unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error.
xauth: error in locking authority file /root/.Xauthority

wow:. will play on my mac for more inspiration