I loaded a Mandriva DVD from a Linux magazine. I've got as far as...

Starting display manager:
sh-3.1#_

If this has anything to do with the peripherals, I've already been through that.
The program reads the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

I've tried some versions of /root/ whatever, but nothing I can think of works.
I couldn't get lucky in a whorehouse with a fistful of $100s.

Anyone have any idea what comes next? Try to get my money back?
Any help would be appreciated.

Lin X. Newby

Login as a normal user and enter the command "startx". If a gui starts, then edit /etc/inittab and change id:3:initdefault: to id:5:initdefault: , so that the GUI is started automatically at boot time. If the GUI does not start post back any error messages you see on the screen.

The screen says:
ERROR Virtual screen too big for memory: 512OK needed, 4096K available
Screen(s) found but none have a usable configuration.
Then back to: localhost `1$_

The X Window system was configuring using config file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf".

I tried the edit/etc/inittab but I get back to localhost ~1$_ again. But you probably already know that.

I'm loading Mandriva on a 80GB. HDD. so there's plenty of room.
LXN

Try running XFdrake and see if it will automatically configure your graphics card for you. Alternatively you can run xorgconfig which is a menu driven tool for your graphics card. I've just noticed that there is no need to touch /etc/inittab. By the way, what Linux magazine did you get the dvd from. Linux Magazine shipped a pre release version of Mandriva 2007 that was buggy.

I tried XFdrake after localhost`1$ It says command not found and back to localhost`1$_
I forgot how to get into XFdrake. Too much to learn from scratch.

The distro is a DVD from Nov. issue of Linux Magazine. It says full 4.4 GB DVD. with 32 & 64 bit versions. I picked this distro because it was the only Linux DVD on the rack. A friend told me to get Fedora 6 but there wasn't any.

When I loaded it for the second time, I basically selected the default settings as they came up. I figured that was the safest way to load Mandriva. I could change settings to my liking later.

BTW, I set some setting to 5 instead of 3 because that's what Mandriva can do. Did I goof doing that?
LXN

The magazine you bought is the one with the pre release and not the actual Mandriva 2007 release. There have been some other people who have had problems with this DVD. Anyway if reinstalling worked fine, then everything is ok.