HI everyone.
I'm a new user o mandriva and i have a problem.
I installed mandriva to a partition of my HD. Everything ok .
I tryed to log in With the name mike and my passwd.
And a message appeared in the console: [mike@localhost] and a cersor blinking, waiting for a command. What am i supposed to type in order to enter the main desktop(?), page(?) of the mandriva...?

Try

startx

however it should start automatically for you.

when you log in, is it via a text screen or a nice fluffy GUI? It may be that something did not install properly, or did you choose advanced install options and deselect something. Someone who knows mandriva will be along soon.

It seems likely that X-Windows did not get setup correctly. During startup, if X encounters a problem, it will fallback to a command line. If it does not start after entering "startx", then take a look at the log. cd to /var/log, and look for a file named Xorg.0.log---you can look for errors using grep "(EE)" Xorg.0.log (You should only get one line---ie the one which defines what (EE) means.
Similarly, look for warnings using grep "(WW)" Xorg.0.log

January 24 (Aust)

Hi

Would you please post the version of Mandriva that you are trying to install, and some information about the PC onto which you have installed it. In particular the amount of system memory (RAM); and the brand name and model number of your graphics adapter/graphics chipset, and amount of RAM installed on the graphics card.

That will provide a more detailed starting point.

After you login, try typing

startx (and press return)

This will attempt to start up the Xwindows desktop.

If it fails it will generate some error messages.
These error messages are written to a logfile.
Post any key error messages here for advice on the cause.


I am assuming that when you installed Mandriva that you specified the correct details for the Graphics adapter, and monitor that you have installed in the PC ?

If correctly configured during installation the Xwindows desktop should appear on the screen after you login.


There is another possibility. When you installed Mandriva did you skip the Xwindows configuration step ? Did you create the user account mike as a user account without graphic desktop support (ie. as a shell only account) ?


Wishing you the best of luck

Chris

I already tried the startx command, but an error appeared. My system is a laptop pc(acer aspire): Intel 2core duo at 2Gh 2 Gb ram memory and the graffics card is installed to the motherboard, up to 256mb. I followed the steps of the installation as they appeared in the setup window. I did not change anything...
Ty in advance again

Please post the error so we can help you debug it. We are in the dark without your information.

You have to tell us the actual errors. Look in the log file as I suggested before.

Alternatively, you can try running xorgconfig or a similar utility. To see what's installed on your system, enter "man -k xorg".

The easy way out (I confess to doing this more than once) is to try a different distro. some are much better than others at detecting and configuring peripherals. Ubuntu, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, Fedora---all are good.