Lost GUI login in Mandrake 10 and can't start X
 

I'm not sure just what I did when trying to set up a home network, but now I can't get X going. When I booted, it goes to TTY1 and asks for a login and password. The screen is black like a console, but has the Mandrake 10.1 logo in the bottom right (I know its out of date, but it has been working). If I try to start X from one of the three profiles, it says I don't own the console. OK, I can understand this, so I switch to root, but when I type "startX", it tries to start and then shuts down. The error message is as follows.

fbdev(0) bfiopan_display: invalid argument
/etc/x11/xsession: line7: /etc/profile.d/ 10lang.sa: no such file or directory.

I put my cd in and told it to upgrade, not install, as I didn't want to overwrite anything. At the configuration page, I have tried numerous video settings, but still with a similar error message. The video card is fairly new, and there is no selection for it in the list of cards in the configuration settings page.

I've thought about doing a full install of Mandrake again, but I don't want to overwrite anything on the hard drive.

Any suggestions as how to proceed?

I have a tenner that says the first thing any/everyone will say is to upgrade fully, but nevermind, lets see what we can do.

Does the file specified there exist? Have you tried a full install of X again? What did you do prior to this? I know you say you don't know, but see if the 'history' command jogs your memory; you've deleted something I'd guess.

As far as I can remember, I changed the properties of some folders to be shared, ones that have jpgs and mpgs. I also started Samba. Those are the only mods I made that I can remember. When I booted the machine the next time, I got the TTY1 login. What is unusual is even though it looks like a console, there is the Mandrake Logo in the bottom right corner.

I know I didn't make any changes to the monitor setting, or anything else. Just file and folder permissions in the home directory for my user