I don't know what I did but now when I turn on the computer, it goes directly to dos screen. I have to type startx for it to load Gnome desktop. Can somebody help me on this? How can I restore to the time when it worked fine. Thank you.

I'm not sure I have read your post correctly but If I understand your situation when you start your computer it is going into a terminal mode (tty?). So your computer is not starting x. You may have changed the run level on your system. In Slackware it is in the file /etc/inittab but since your distro is not listed under your profile I'm not sure if this will help or if I've read your post correctly.

I think you should modifying file under /etc. Find inittab. Edit it with any text editor you like. Find this word (runlevel) 3 (This about multiuser but not using x server). Changed parameter 3 to 4. This parameter will tell systems, for every time you boot, you don't have to type startx.

Hope this will help you

I'm sorry for not telling you that I'm currently using Debian Etch. Yes, it's correct that the computer goes directly to the tty screen. I'm very new to this so it would help me a lot if you could show me in steps. Thank you very much.

If your scared you will break something remember to backup any file you are
working with that you have to be root or sudo to fix. The inittab is a file that requires you to be root to edit.

Type from the terminal: cat /etc/inittab | less
( you will be able to read the file to see what runlevel )

I'm not sure in Debian so you will have to Google around to see which
runlevel you need or if that is what has been changed. There is also instructions on the net to show you how to edit this file.

While you are at the terminal, log in as root and type
/etc/init.d/gdm start

The problem could be caused by a number of things, you should check the following:

1) Have a look for a file called "default-display-manager" in the /etc/X11 directory:

If you see the file "default-display-manager", then edit it by doing the following:

Make sure the following line is there:

If it is not, then add type the above line in, then save the file CTRL+O and then exit CTRL+X


2) Have a look in your /etc/init.d directory:

There should be a file called 'gdm', which is a script that is used to launch Gnome Display Manager.

If you don't have it, you will need to somehow acquire that file.


3) Have a look in your /etc/rc3.d directory. In there you should find a file (actually a symlink), such as S13gdm or similar number.

If not, then you might want to add a symlink to the /etc/init.d/gdm script file.


Hope this helps.