Hi guys,

I got a copy of Mandrake 10.1 so I could learn Linux on an old desktop. I partitioned the hard drive and the install seemed to work.
After the reboot, the bootloader loads and I see many prompts (everything says OK) and then....a blank screen. That's it, nothing else.

OK, I posted the rest of this original post in the Mandrake forum but I also have another newbie question.

I am really hoping to get Mandrake up and running so I can learn Linux. I see that the real knowledge comes from using the command line. How does one go about learning that? Do I get a UNIX book and hope the commands are the same in every distro or does each Distro have different commands?

what do u meen by a blank screen???

do u get any blinking cursor or a prompt or a busy icon etc etc


regards

After the bootloader asks for a OS choice, I select Linux and it proceeds to run through a large series of prompts (everything says OK) and then the monitor shows a blank, black screen. There is no desktop, no command prompt, no mouse cursor, no icons of any kind, nothing...just a plain black screen.

hi there

when u get that

press ctrl+alt+(F1-F6)

choose any form F1-F6
u will get a login prompt

then login as root

then edit ur inittab file and
change

id:5:initdefault

to

id:3:initdefault

and restart

and see if u boot in text mode

regards

To learn cmd line you can:
1) type 'man bash' in console;
2) read FAQs (somewhere in /usr/doc/Linux-FAQs, etc);
3) buy any book about Linux (I learned basics from RH7 book);
4) delete Mandy and install Slackware It'll teach you the basics of cmd line within a week
____________________
Slackware is the shortest way to learn Linux

pressing ctrl+alt+F1 through F6 has no effect

ok

boot from ur 1st CD and go to rescue mode

and change ur runlevel to 3

regards

I figured it out!

Thanks for asking me all those specifics. It made me verify what I had on my desktop. The thing is so old that I had forgotten.

I escaped work for lunch and went home. I did YET another reinstall, this time I did not leave the xserver as Intel 820. I chose the nVIDIA card and I have Mandrake running!

I have one last concern however. I selected only to confgure this card, not the Intel one. The startup prompts show everything as OK, except eth0. that one has a FAILED status. What is that, should I be concerned?

that is most probably because
u might have selected ur ethernet card to get ip from DHCP server which u do not have

so
open up ur
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

file and

see that u have entries like these

bootproto=static

ipaddr=<ipaddress>


regards

How do I install slackware???

are u sure u have posted the question in the right thread??

regards