i have no unix experience but am trying to gain it so i just installed mandrake 9.2. [-- sorry caps lock busted----] installation fine but no gui on reboot. i dont even know how to change directories, or view logs to copy and paste here [help links appreciated].

i have;

ati radeon 9600se

first issue maybe not related- i select my mouse and test it and it is ok and works fine but once i get to the partitioning section the mouse quits working and never does again

main issue; once installed and rebooted there is no gui. instead i get text interface and all i know how to do is logon and thats it. i checked forums and found that i should run xf86config. i ran it and configured everything as it should be, rebooted, typed startx, but this didnt help, it aborted and gave error message. i also reinstalled and at the gui install config i made sure to enter my custom monitor refresh rates and i chose for disply; radeon [fblrx], i tried the [radeon [fbdev] first. no luck.

i read this;

linuxquestions.org/questions/archive/30/2003/12/3/125959 but i dont know how to even begin as i know none of the basic commands. i 1st want to try to run the hardware configuration and try to do what he did but have no idea how to navigate this text interface.

btw, when at the install gui hardware configurer i tried many of the diplay options varying the card, monitor, and resolution and tested each time. each time i got error messages.

any help appreciated, thank

when doing xf86config, try selecting a generic driver (the VESA one for example)

start with an 800x600 resolution and double check the refresh rates

hi,

i followed the above and when i run startx i get a fatal error -
[ww] radeon; no matching device section for instance [bus id pci;1;00;1]found

[ee] no devices detected

then [xio] fatal io error 104 connection reset by peer

i tried both generic vga and vesa with no luck - arrggh, i hate being a clueless gimp