After successfully installing the kernel and before I install the GRUB bootloader, it asks me to review the configuration file which I did. Then what? How do I save then exit the editor and then install the bootloader? There are no instructions to save and exit the editor. Thanks.

Which distro is this, and how are you installing it?
What have you tried? (Usually pressing "enter" or "esc" will do what you want.)
What is the "text editor"? (Presumably not a gui since save and exit are in the menues - perhaps this is emacs or vi?)

Nothing is standard in linux. You have to be specific.

for vi, the ":" starts the cammand options.

":help"<enter> gets help
":q"<enter> quits

I've never used emacs

I'm so new to Linux that I am not sure of your questions; hope this helps. I am using the CD to HD install of Arch Linux 0.7.1 (Noodle)
There is no save or exit option on the screen of the editor after I scroll all the way down after inspection. When I go to the Help menu it does have a list of things including (I think but am not home to verify at present) ^XY to Save; I believe but am not sure what that means. ESC does nothing for me. I am so close to finishing the insatll as I have ONLY the bootloader IF I can get past and saving and then exiting from the Text Editor. Thanks. Hope this helps.

hold ctrl, press X and then Y that'll save and quit Nano (the 'easy' editor option arch gives you).

When I used the NANO editor and pressed CTRL XY it went on to save and then I was able to exit, install the GRUB bootloader, leave the install CD in and then reboot. It told me that all was fine, I rebooted again without the CD, it started OK then gave me a recurring (among other things) DriveReday SeekComplete Errors, ide:failed opcode was unknown and DriveStatusError BadCRC. Any suggestions? Thanks again

CRC errors are usually caused by a bad drive, or a drive writing to bad sectors. You should check the drive with the manufacturers utility for verifying drive integrity.

I WAS able to install Win XP on the computer so I don't know why I would get disk errors while trying to install Linux. Is there a different version of Linux I should try? I burned the ISO for this one but maybe a different one would be better?

OK. I started over with Debian Linux on the hard drive from CDD and active Internet connection. I went through the complete install, it prompted for my login and password successfully. Now I am at the prompt dale@debian:~$. What do I do now? Reboot or what. Everything seemed to fine on the instakll. Help ! Thanks.

Now you can start using Linux using the CLI (command line interpreter). It's like in the old DOS days. Some will help. The linux documentation project might be of interest.

Some usefull commands in the CLI:
ls to list the content of a directory
cd to change directory
cp to copy a file
mv to move a file
rm to remove a file
man manual pages (help); i.e. type man ls and press <enter>

You probably want some graphical stuff. Type startx and press <enter>. If you have installed X, it should give you a graphical user interface.
If that works, it will probably not have the correct resolutions and refresh rates. <ctrl><alt>+ and <ctrl><alt>- will allow you to cycle trough the resolutions.

There are a lot of things that you have to figure out. One of them probably to get better refreshrates and next to get X started automatically. Another one to get printers to work as well as scanners and other stuff. Sometimes it's easy as it's already supported, sometimes lots of research, sweating and swearing will do the trick; but the satisfaction can be great when you manage to get something to work.

You can always come back here with questions.

Enjoy Linux

So I am to assume (since I have never even seen Linux before) that it is normal after I login to see a prompt to go further? And since when I typed in startx and nothing happened that I do not have the GUI interface already loaded in? If all this is true, where do I go from here?

Prompt to go further? What does it look like?

For me, with no GUI, the prompt says "Login" or something like that.
I enter my username at the prompt, then enter my password (nothing gets echoed to the screen for password - not even a row of asterisks). Then I get a prompt which shows my username and a "$" sign. Then I can enter "startx".

Yes, if you've never used Linux before, you don't know what to expect so you can think that it's normal or you can think that it's abnormal (when you expect a gui).
Some distro's offer you an option during install to boot to X or not.

startx loads the graphical environment. It might however not be installed.
When you type startx, something must happen. Either it being an error message from the shell that it can't find the command or an error message from X that something is wrong or a (hopefully, but not in your case yet) it starts the graphical environment.

So as 'nothing' happens, what is the error that you get?

But if the prompt says "continue (Y/n):" then this would not be normal - and it could be described as "a prompt to continue", and typing "startx" there would be the wrong thing to do. If the prompt says "dalebo@localhost [~]:" ... this would be better. If it says "simon@indigo-prime [~]" then this is very wrong and he should log out of my computer immediatly However, I see it is "dale@debian [~]:" which is excellent and expected.

Possibly /sbin/startx will work? But I agree - we want to see the error message.

A GUI is normal for the default install from practically all major distros.

I am curious that some information is missing that most debian folk would include: which debian release is this? Is this the stable or unstable tree? Is this a workstation or server install?

For eg. there is an installation manual at: http://www.debian.org/
These details are covered therein. Particularily:
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch07.html.en

It looks like Dale has gone through the base-config system: sets up time zone, users and groups etc. Including this bit:... at least one of these pre-rolled packages includes a gui.

At this point - presumably "aptitude install gdm" or "aptitude install kde" will install the gui system and everything it depends on (like the x server)... then startx will work.

This is where debian diverges strongly from slackware - the packages tend to be pre-compiled binaries installed through a dedicated package manager. Practically everything is done via this. Direct manipulation of configuration files tends to be de-emphasised.

Wow; a lot of stuff. Anyway there is no GUI already installed. I guess I'll habve to go back and find and install one of the packages to get me the GUI. I used a stable, workstation release using all default installs.

to install a desktop environemnt in Debain is real easy.

you need to be root so do this:
after this exit from root and startx
if you want a graphical login manager you can then install kdm or gdm
good luck

ps. there are many other window managers but gnome and kde are probably easiest for newbies.

edit:
when i first installed debian i didn't realise the space bar toggled the option for installing desktop enviroments during the install... so i had the same problem of no gui


edit2
just fully read the post from Simon Bride..
oops, .
but he's right..the good thing about debian is there is no need to edit anything after installing, aptitude will sort out the config files and you should have x working.

if you want to use a GUI package manager you can install synaptic, which is a front end for apt.