i believe i am in a runlevel other than 3, which I think is default. i cannot get into gnome this, i need help. I am running Mandrake. There is a story behind this problem, but basically i just need to switch the runlevel.

Edit the file /etc/inittab and change the line for the default runlevel in Debian it looks like this.

You need to re-boot for this to take effect if you are just at the console as root and you want to get to say runlevel 5 without rebooting then use init 5 and it should start that runlevel for you.

Can use init 5

or edit /etc/inittab and change the line that has

#id:3:initdefault:

to

#id:5:initdefault:

this will get you to GUI at bootup.

if you aren't happy with the run level you are in, you can (as root) run

init X

replace X with the run level you want to be in (generally people gravitate between 3 and 5 (or 3 and 4 - eg Slackware))

Alternatively, edit /etc/inittab (again as root), as already mentioned above

Incidentally, it's a neat thing to default to 3 because if you startx from the console, you can be in a terminal as su, and run X based software from there, which you normally can't because if you start in 4 (or 5) the X session is locked to you (without going into too much detail).

Mind you that's only really useful if you work in the console alot and change things

ok, a couple of things. i am in init 5 and i want to be in 3. that is what i usually am in, i think. but maybe not. the other thing that i need happen is my login screen does not come up anymore, so in console i do 'startx' and start KDE and go to 'configure computer' and 'system' or somehting and go to 'login properties' (Sorry i am at work right now, and i don't remember the names exactly) and the function that logged in automatically was turned off. i need this back on, and i don't know if this is altered by this, or by the runlevel. this is what i need and don't have:

when i sign on it should be GUI and log me right into gnome (i cannot get into gnome at all right now).

i should have the ability to switch between any GUI desktop on my computer that i want (right now when i log out of KDE it just brings me to the console mode)

if the two things that i mentioned earlier help this, let me know, otherwise let me know what else i can do.




edit: also i have already found the inittab file and changed it, but i logged off and signed into windows and when i came back it was just at init 5 again. so by running 'init 3' and changing inittab to 3, will it be permanent?

You have to start at runlevel 5 to access the UI - you can read a bit about runlevels here.
In Mandrake, you can choose whether or not to log on automatically, and with which window manager. It is a setting in the Control Center, which you acces with the term command drakconf.