I had just finished installing Mandrake Linux and right when It booted I noticed that the screen blinked a lot and when it stopped blinking I put my password and my username but I didnt go to the desktop or nothing. Instead i was still in a place called console and when i logged in it just had my username and some weird stuff like $myusername_localhost$ or something like that. And I was wondering if anyone could tell me why I didnt boot to the desktop but instead in the same place but just signed in. PLEASE HELP ME.

That weird stuff you saw is called a prompt. If you ever used dos you would recognize the prompt as something like C:\>
The most likely reason why you didn't boot into a graphical gui is either because you haven't installed it or because you haven't configured it properly. I assume since it was blinking a lot that it was trying to get it started but then failed so it put you back at a console. Well to get it configured you should run something like xf86config and then answer all the questions properly. After that you can run startx to start up the GUI.

Can I fix the booting problem if I start the installation process over again. And when I was creating a partiton i got confused because there was a AUTO ALLOCATE or something like that. What it did was create home, /, and swamp partitions. Is that what I am supposed to select? If it isnt then can someone tell me what I am supposed to choose. Thanx

hey, don't double post ok? it's REALLY annoying.

read my other reply.

After it gets done flashing does it display a message like this:

INIT: Id "x" Respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes?

If so, you have to fix your graphics settings. To do that you need to run XFdrake as root and adjust the video settings to your computer setup. Also, if you are using an nvidia based video card it will be well worth your while to download and install the new linux based drivers. Once you get the graphics stuff fixed, whenever you start up afterwards you should go into the graphical interface login. Hope this helps.

Hey D

Well yes this is a problem with X. When you did a install and tried to configure the card you more than likely accepted the suggested settings without testing it. If you really need help supply all hardware specs and we could re-write the script. Its not that bad. But if you feel you messed up on the partitions then re-install and ill give more suggestions.

how can I test the video settings before I accept them?

I use Suse and Yast:
There is a "Test" button on the same panel where I make the setting. If you use the Test button and the setting is not correct, either Linux will kill the XServer or you can do by pressing CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE.