Can you post that xfree86.log? And maybe your xfree86 config file (not sure where it is on redhat 9)...

The reason you are getting errors when your stick isn't plugged in is because this line is telling the system that it should load the /dev everytime it boots instead of when it's plugged in. Try changing it to:

/dev/sda /mnt/usb auto noauto,user 0 0

This is what is on mine and it works without errors. The only thing is I don't know if this is going to allow auto mount on your system or not. I run Slackware 10.2 and it doesn't. I'm still trying to figure out how to do that. If anyone knows, please post it.

As far as the GUI problem, have you tried switching to a different manager? Try typing xwmconfig at the command line and choosing a different manager, i.e. Gnome, xfce, etc.. If it loads then your GUI files are hosed. If it doesn't, then it may be a problem in X, which someone more competant than I will need to help you with.

you can change the "auto auto" auto noauto" in the /dev/sda line. that way it won't try to mount it at boot up.

heh, beat me to it.

i think it's redhat-config-xfree86 at the command prompt but i could be wrong.

rshaw,
Thanks anyhow.

thekid,

I tried typing 'xwmconfig' at teh command line and got 'command not found'.

Try typing xwm then hit the TAB key and see what happens. If there is a command that starts with that then it should complete it for you. Redhat may have a different WM config command though. Did you try rshaw's suggestion, redhat-config-xfree86?

wxm thing did not work. I did not realize rshaw's suggestion was a command until you said that. So I tried that and I got the same result - screen lost its connection, but when I pressed ctrl-alt-f6 I had the following message on the screen:

***********
The application 'xconf.py' lost its connection to the display: 17.0; mostlikely the X server was shut down or you killed / destroyed the application
***********

After that, I tried startx and got the same Fatal server error message as I did before. So I guess X is running?

It looks like X is having issues trying to load anything GUI related. If it was windows, I would say that a possible cause would be the resolution was set outside the refresh rate of either the monitor or video card, but I'm not sure for linux. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Thanks for trying! Anyone else have a good idea.