Ok.
I made a thread in linux software about this

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=277320

but im not sure if it should be in the "software" or "newbie" forum so im putting one in both.

I recently (just before christmas) switched to linux. I origionaly decided on debian because it was suposed to have a lot of options avalable. when i tried to install it everything worked mostly smooth untill i tried to boot the computer. when i did i could log in and type "xinit, startx, kdeinit..." and it would all give me the same error

aborting: $DISPLAY not set

I have virtualy no patience so i gave up and chose Mandrake instead because it too had a lot of options, easy install system, package management and an all around good "newb interface".

I've had a bunch of problems with it but could fix almost all of them. It had been runing great for about 5 weeks with almost no problems. I was playing a game one morning, it was almost time to go to school, so shut down my computer, put it in my bag and went to class. i then turned it back on in first hour and it did what debian did with the $DISPLAY error.

I have stuff on my hard drive now so i cant just pack upand start over again so easily.

I made a post on this site and someone suggested that i type

(X :0 &) && export DISPLAY="0:0" && sleep 5 && (kdeinit)

so i did... and i got this

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

[root@192 root]# (X :0 &) && export DISPLAY="0:0" && sleep 5 && (kdeinit)
execve failed for /etc/X11/X (errno 2)
[root@192 root]# Link points to "/tmp/ksocket-root"
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
QPixmap: Cannot create a QPixmap when no GUI is being used
Link points to "/tmp/kde-root"
kded: cannot connect to X server 0:0
DCOP aborting call from 'anonymous-4646' to 'kded'
kded: ERROR: Communication problem with kded, it probably crashed.
kdeinit : Can't connect to the X Server.
kdeinit: Might not terminate at end of session.

[root@192 root]#

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I also had an idea of installing Mandrake on another partition and copying the files I need to the old one. However, I wouldn't know how to go about doing that or which files to copy.

I'm running Mandrake 10.1 on an Averatec 3150H laptop. I have KDE, Gnome, and ICEwm installed.

Now I'm not really sure, but does it help if you replace (kdeinit) in startx?
==>

(X :0 &) && export DISPLAY="0:0" && sleep 5 && startx

no unfortunately it just says someting like
init: xserver failed
but idont remember exactly

Please do not post the same thread in more than one forum. Picking the most relevant forum and posting it once there makes it easier for other members to help you and keeps the discussion all in one place.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/rules.php