I am currently running Mandrake 9.2 (for a couple of days now.. Without too many problems)

Everything was working fine until I unpacked a tar.gz file into the /usr/local/games - directory (pretty large..).

I rebooted, and got some error messages (didn't see which. Something about having too little space on the disk). The Graphical interface didn't load (usually does).

This is where the problem started. I went forward and deleted the unzipped folder and the tar.gz - file. When I rebooted I got NO error messages, but the login-menu wasn't working (see below)..

When I try to edit the users in KDE I am prompted for root-password, the menu loads, but when i try to uncheck the 'filter out xxx' in the menu the window closes..

The problem is:
* Linux loads fine until the graphical login-menu.

* All of a sudden I can choose fro a zillion (well.. Around 20 anyway..) users to log in as, although I usually had two profiles to choose from (which I created).

* When I try to log in with ANY profile the screen flashes, and I am returned to the login-menu again (NOTHING happened).

* I then try to login from console - no problem. Then I run 'startx' - sure thing! KDE - interface loads up without any problems!! I am dazzled..

Why can't I log in from the graphical menu???

Please help..

The login screen is controlled by the display manager, DM for short. The default DM for mandrake 9.2 is called "kdm". Try changing the DM in Mandrake Control Center>System>Choose display manager to "xdm" and see if that works. If it does, uninstall kdm in mcc>Software Management and try reinstalling it. Then reset kdm as the DM and see if it works.

To KilGoreTrout:

Not to detract TOO MUCH from the thread...

I didnt want any kde stuff (i'm building a GNUstep environment) so i went with xdm (which drakeconf recognizes).

I want to replace the xdm with wdm (from Window Maker) with the intention of installing InterfaceWM, a window manager written in Objective-C.

I've done this before in other distros, but i'm not familiar with Mandrake and i dont want to break anything...

Can anyone share any possible caveats i might encounter with Mandrake's drake technology while trying to setup my own dm menus?

Thanks.