Hi all!

I am totally new to Linux and will be supporting it shortly in a new job role. I decided to install RedHat on my hp Probook 6460b to get a head start before I start.

I got a 30 day trial of RedHat Enterprise Linux Client version 5.8 from the Red Hat website. It seemed to install successfully until the first reboot whereby I get the error "Failed to start the x server (Your graphical interface). It seems that the pointer device (your mouse) is not set up correctly. Would you like to view the x server output" I can't get past this to get in to the operating system. Is there a simple fix for this?

I have uploaded a video of what is happening on YouTube to explain it better: http://youtu.be/-Tz1tPnB_1I

Please help if you can!
Thanks

Hm, that does look odd. The jump cuts to the HP screen certainly don't seem to be healthy (though that's almost certainly a problem with your laptop rather than RedHat) and the mouse pointer does seem to be working. Suggestions:

• When it asks "Do you want to view the X server output?" select "Yes" and post the output here.
• When you get to the 'localhost:' prompt, log in (assuming you've set up an username and password already) and try the 'startx' command: you should get output logged to the screen (which may well end up being the same as the "X server output" it referred to)
• When logged in, look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log or /var/log/Xorg.log after a failed login attempt and post its contents here

Alternatively, and probably the best option if it's possible, is to try installing it on a different laptop - that way we can try to narrow it down to a setup issue vs. a hardware issue (in any case, it will give us a bit more information about what's going wrong, probably).

Hope this helps,

Some recommendations:
- If you don't plan to buy a subscription for RHEL install CentOS instead. It is a free clone of RHEL.
- Use the latest version, RHEL 5.8 is way to old to support your hardware properly.

1 members found this post helpful.

You could very well be right about the laptop...they weren't the most reliable batch of PCs. I will try another laptop but in the meantime, here are the screenshots that you asked for.

Thanks for helping!

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Too old? Really? They told me it was the latest version.

I'll check out CentOS

Thanks

It is the latest version in the 5-series branch. RHEL is at 6.3 now, with a much newer kernel.

Thanks for your help guys. I guess Red Hat 5.3 was too old for this laptop. I installed CentOS 6.3 and she's working beautifully!

Brilliant. Could you mark this thread as 'SOLVED' please? (There's a link at the top of the page). That way people know there's a solution contained in the thread.