i installed linux for thew first time last nite and every thing went smooth untill i got to the root login, before i could type in the pass i got a black screen that i had to reboot to get out of, i tried several other times to log in with the same results i then reinstalled and made sure my monitor was correct in the settings of the linux installer figuring it is a video problem?
has anyone else had this problem and what is trhe work around for it i am using the elx distro on a 3oo mghz intell with a sis 630 chipset for video.
all replys will be very appreciated (exspecially if there writen in all ive ever worked in is windows form) because this is my first voyage into linux.

sounds to me its trying to boot into graphical mode and its not configured properly. at boot: prompt type init 3 or Linux 3 and it should boot you into multi user mode with networking... this should prompt you for a login and shouldn't try to boot into X directly. upon that, you want to edit your inittab file in your /etc direcotry to boot into runlevel 3 instead of 5...
also from there try to get X working...

let us know !

-trickykid

Hi,

I have the same chipset and have had endless problems with getting X to work as well. The main problem in that the SiS630 chipset is not well supported by XFree86. What you need to do is to enable the fbdev X server. How you do this depends on which distribution you have installed. By using fbdev I managed to get X up and running in high res (1024 x 768 in 16bpp).

ok i was installing the elx distro and it all sounded too good to be true, i was having problems hanging at login and going to a black screen i installed asplinux and every thing went smooth, not to knock elx i have heard other people install it without a snag

Try logging in at the lilo prompt with by typing >> linux single

Then vi /etc/inittab and make sure the number set for init is 3 not 5 the nsave it and reboot.

Thanks

i am very grumpy with my sis630 video card.
I already gave up on the sis630 modem, as i have the 2.2 kernel, waiting for the 2.4 so i can actually get a driver for it.
Anyway, i went to this site and this one which looks really good, but i am too thick to understand what is going on!
i got my card working before, and saved the files for 3 or 4 possible sis630 video solutions on a cd. now i am reinstalling, and i tried them all, and can't remember how i got any of them to work.
I can't figure out these pages i just said either, so does anybody know the answer?
useful liks are no good at this stage of the game i am afraid, unless they're really useful, what i'm really after is if somebody has got their Xserver to work using a sis630 video card PLEASE tell me how!!!
thanks a lot.......