I can't get X to start up, something about NVIDIA kernel module
 

i I'm really having a bit of a struggle with this problem and would appreciate any help.

I intaled Mandrake 9.1 on my system in GUI mode with no hitches. It asked me if I would like it to start in GUI mode when logging in I said yes, when I restarted it I got just the command line prompt so I logged in and typed "startx" I then got this little lot which means nothing much to me:

Using vt 7
(EE) NVIDIA(0) Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module
(EE) NVIDIA(0) ***Aborting***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error
no screens found.

XIO: Fatal IO error 104 (conection reset by peer) and X server "0.0" after 0 requests (o known processed) with 0 events remaining

That is the main bit of it but there was something about checking "var/log/XFree86.0.log" I managed to noodle my was to it and upoened it using vi (I was proud of myself for that) but the resulting with lots of cody type looking stuff made me run away in terror.

The odd thing about this is that I had this exact same system up and running with no probs at all around 6 months back but didn't have time to start learning linux I'm not sure why it is not working now.

I hope I have given enough information and not missed a glaringly obvious info source or fix, apologies if I have, thanks for reading.

use vi to edit the /etc/X11/xf86config file.........
put the above under the line where your "nvidia" driver is........

obviously you have an nvidia card, don't you? but did you download and installed the drivers from here?

Yes I've got a GeForce 4 MX420 and I didn't get the drivers whre you suggested as I thought they would be included on the instalation as it worked before just fine. Getting online is goning to be a new mission in itself.

Thanks for the replies

I did this but nothing has changed, I'm pretty sure I put in in the right place

I'm back at square one with this, are there any other things I could try?

try to download that drivers then install them (if it complains on kernel source you've to install kernel source (for debian kernel headers)). Once you did this change /usr/X11/XF86Config-4 as described in the docs (/usr/share/doc/nvidiasomething.. )
good luck

Thanks for the reply. I've given up on it and switched to red hat 8.0 and guess what I get a nice pretty GUI every time so I'll see how it goes, now, to get an internet connection on it :)