Hello everybody

I'm running mandrak 9.2

and i'm new to it. being new i been modifing linux user/configuratoin files using both gui and bash which is causing problems with the operating system. due to this issue i must have reinstalled linux 10 times...

My QUESTION:
how do i configure lilo.conf so, one of the option is to boot into bash or into dos mode....
as of now i been booting into kdi and before putting in my user id and password i'm doing "ctrl alt f1" to jump into bash.

well if all you want to do is to boot into a non graphical enviornment then do this in root user:
with ur favorite text editor open up /etc/inittab.
near the start of this script you will see something like this:
default runlevel(do not set to 0 or 6)
id:5:initdefault (note the 5 ight be a 4 too).
all you have to do is change this no. to a 3 and then the next time you boot up...the graphical system will not start up by default.
to start the graphical system up you will have to type startx.
too start a login manager....you will have to type either xdm,gdm or kdm in root user mode.
hope this helps

If you ever need to know how to edit a .conf file there's a way for you to find out for yourself. Type in:
man *.conf
obviously the * is the name of the .conf file you want to edit.

Also, if you use -help on man you'd learn that
man -K whatever you are looking for
will search your files for the manual files you need.

I know, it's reading, but at least you don't want to configure samba. Such long manual files....

Is there a way to edit the runlevel at bootup? For instance, if I'm booting at runlevel=4 but I want to boot to level 3 before entering my GUI, can I do that somehow?

probably(the answer to all linux "can I" questions) but I don't know how and it is a bit unclear of what you're asking. are you wanting to enter you uid and pass into a bash prompt but after logging in you want it to automatically go into your gui?

or does it boot to gui login manager now and you want it to boot to bash?

I know how to choose what runlevel to start with. I'm set to go straight to gui now but suppose I boot up and only want a prompt. Can I stop the loading of the window manager and, essentially, boot to runlevel 3 instead of 4? Do you know what I mean?