First let me introduce myself. I am a complete and utter noob to Linux and have installed mandrake 9.1 on my laptop because I thought it would be a good way to learn. I have a problem logging on. I enter my user/pas and receive this after modules load: roban@localhost roban1$. After I see this nothing happens and I don't know where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated. TIA

www.linux.org

Check out their tutorial (linux 101). Excellent info for newbies.

Also, look at some links in my sig, and most of all:
Welcome to LQ

That is a bash prompt. From there you execute commands, but I am gonna assume you want to get into a graphical environment now, so the command to do that is:
startx

Hopefully, you've got the necessary packages installed and setup (usually this is done during the installation, so normally it isn't a problem, however post back if nothing happens when you type that...).

Cool

I guess I don't have the necessary packages. I have a 3 CD set and never was asked for other than CD1. When I type startx I get execue failed for /etc/X11/X (errno 13) xinit:no such file unable to conect to xserver..blah blah

Ok, now you get to dive in

Login as root (assuming you didn't already) by logging out:
exit
And then typing for the username:
root
And enter the root password you typed during the install.

Then, type:
XFdrake
Case sEnSITive of course

Run through that, it will be asking some funny questions, most of the time the default card is actually the one you have. In the rare instance it's not, scroll up and down the list and find yours. Select it, hit OK, and move on down the line. Get your resolution, if you don't know specs on your monitor, usually the default is OK (again) but can often be the bain of headaches for setting up the X server (what we are doing). So I usually tend to stand shy of what I think the maxes my monitor can handle are, and then after I get things running, go back and test better resolutions/color depths.

You can run the test, but often the test doesn't work. After you are done, highlight "quit" tap OK and try:
startx
Again. This is going to be tedious doing this over and over until things work out, but once it gets all sussed and you finally get X setup, you'll be in a graphical environment and will have an excellent sense of accomplishment

Cool

Yep this is tedious alright but I will keep after it. I'll let you know if and when things come into focus

Just thinkin about this one a bit, do you have any info on your hardware?

Can you post up what you get from:
lspcidrake

Just type that into the terminal and it will print out some stuff, if you can post that up (btw, how are you browsing the board?) that'd be great.

Something to become familiar with sooner rather than later, the TAB autocomplete function. It will help you find commands and more importantly, make sure you are typing the correct letters for them. After you type the first few letters of something, try press TAB to see if it autocompletes the word for you, so for lspcidrake you could type:
lspciTAB
where TAB is you pressing the TAB key. Give it a whirl, it's very nice especially when you have to 'live in the dark' for a while (Live in the dark = Be at the command line only).

Cool

OK did a re-install and I am in using KDE 3.1 I am browsing the Board on my XP Pro machine. I haven't been able to configure my DLink card on my laptop for internet yet. I will try to get drivers for Linux

Congratulations That's one way to skin a cat (since the saying goes "There's more than one way to skin a cat" )



Cool