first things first - i am completely new to linux.
i am taking a course on linux, but i'm not far enough through
to know what i'm doing.

that being said -

i have installed redhat 7.2 on my computer
what i'm trying to do is to open the xwindow.

here's what i've done so far:

i've went to the inittab file and changed it from

id:3:initdefault to id:5:initdefault.
when i enter "init q", nothing happens.

when i type in "startx" i get these messages:

execue failed for /etc/x11/1 (errno2) giving up.
xinit: no such file or directory (errno 2): unable to connect to xserver.
xinit: no such process (errno 3): server error.


also when i installed 7.2 i recieved these messages:

Traceback (innermost last):
File "/usr/bin/anaconda", line 620, in ?
intf.run(id, dispatch, configFileData)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 350, in run
self.icw.run (self.runres, configFileData)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 778, in run
mainloop ()
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/gtk.py", line 2608, in mainloop
_gtk.gtk_main()
File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/gtk.py", line 125, in __call__
ret = apply(self.func, a)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 402, in nextClicked
self.setScreen ()
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 526, in setScreen
new_screen = apply(self.currentWindow.getScreen, args)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iw/xconfig_gui.py", line 254, in getScreen
self.res_combo.set_popdown_strings (available[self.selectedDepth])
KeyError: 16

Local variables in innermost frame:
manualmodes: {'16': ['800x600']}
xconfig: <xf86config.XF86Config instance at 823bb70>
frame1: <gtk.GtkFrame instance at a4a2220>
frame2: <gtk.GtkFrame instance at a3c4460>
adepth: 8


Package Group selection status:
Base: 1
Printing Support: 1
Classic X Window System: 1
X Window System: 1
Laptop Support: 0
Spelling: 0
GNOME: 1
KDE: 1
Sound and Multimedia Support: 1
Network Support: 1
Dialup Support: 1
Messaging and Web Tools: 1
Graphics and Image Manipulation: 0
Network Server: 0
News Server: 0
NFS File Server: 0
Windows File Server: 0
Anonymous FTP Server: 0
SQL Database Server: 0
Web Server: 0
Router / Firewall: 0
DNS Name Server: 0
Network Managed Workstation: 0
Authoring and Publishing: 0
Emacs: 0
Utilities: 0
Legacy Application Support: 0
Software Development: 1
Kernel Development: 0
Windows Compatibility / Interoperability: 0
Games and Entertainment: 1
Everything Include: 0
Workstation Common: 1

You could at least start out by following the posting rules and telling us what distribution you are using. Version 7.2 of what?

I think he said Red Hat 7.2. To the OP, have you configured X yet? Can you post the complete output of you /var/log/XFree86.log (it might have a slightly different name, but it will be in /var/log). Be advised that Red Hat 7.2 is quite old, and therefore might have problems with newer hardware, as well as general problems with being out of date and essentially unsupported. You probably should convert to a newer distro, unless you have a good reason to be running something so old.

thanks for your help.
turns out that linux dosen't recognize
my video card.
the manu. offers the linux driver,
but the only access i have to it is through
winxp and it always freezes up my
dsl(at 400Mbps).