Mandrake boots into command prompt instead of GUI

DiscoBiscuit · 05-30-2004, 06:56 AM

Hi, I installed Mandrake 10 last night, and after quite a bit of messing around I thought I'd finally sorted it all out. However, I've tried to load it up today and instead of going into the GUI its just giving me a command prompt and prompting me to login. It was working last night, I even restarted several times to make sure but I dont know what to do. Any help would be much appreciated

Hangdog42 · 05-30-2004, 08:08 AM

The problem is likely in your /etc/inittab file. Go ahead and log in (go ahead and do this as root) then jump into the /etc directory. Fire up a text editor (pico is a good choice) and open the inittab file. Your looking for a line that looks something like:

id:3:initdefault:

You want to change that 3 to a 5. Save and exit the editor. When you re-boot you should be in graphical mode.

DiscoBiscuit · 05-30-2004, 08:22 AM

It's already on 5
I tried typing startx and it gives me a message thats something like
Fatal Server Error
No Screens Found

I just don't understand how it can stop working overnight without me changing anything

xptential · 05-30-2004, 08:39 AM

what happens if you type kde at the commandline prompt?

|2ainman · 05-30-2004, 08:39 AM

try re-running xf86config

and what exactly do you mean by "quite a bit of messing around" ... cuz if it worked before, then you've obviously done something to it, so you should trace ur steps back. List anything and everything you can remember doing when X was still working.

DiscoBiscuit · 05-30-2004, 08:53 AM

had to install the ati drivers (im using a 9700) using the command prompt, which was a bit confusing considering i've never used linux before yesterday
It WAS working though, I restarted the system several times booting into linux and it worked fine, the only difference this time was that the computer was turned off overnight, not just restarted.
Will go try rerunning xf86config now
back soon

DiscoBiscuit · 05-30-2004, 09:41 AM

OK, I re-ran xf86config and it's let me boot into Linux (I'm posting from it now)
How can I ensure that it stays working?

Hangdog42 · 05-30-2004, 09:48 AM

You shouldn't need to do anything else. xf86config should write a file called /etc/X11/XF86Config that contains all the proper settings. As long as that file is not altered, your system should always boot up the same way.

DiscoBiscuit · 05-30-2004, 09:51 AM

But this is exactly what happened last night, and when I turned on this morning it didnt work again......

Hangdog42 · 05-30-2004, 09:58 AM

Well, look at it this way, if you turn it off and it happens again, you know how to fix it. I know this isn't a long term solution, but at the moment you've done everything correctly. If XF86config isn't saving the parameters, then we have a bit more to go on, but at the moment, we can only assume that the problem is solved. At this point I'd try a complete shutdown and see if the changes took.

Icemangod · 05-30-2004, 10:29 AM

i have a simmilar problem but when i type in kde it told me unknown command. and i did what you guys wrote here and it dont seem to be saving my settings at all.

i also posted here so look there see whats going on. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...935#post961935

DiscoBiscuit · 05-30-2004, 11:07 AM

It seems to be ok for the moment...........
Thanks

Icemangod · 05-30-2004, 04:45 PM

fixed it myself thanks