All options on my dual boot lead to a black terminal. Where is the OS

mookacb · 04-06-2004, 04:40 PM

I recently purchased a toshiba p15 laptop with a 3 GHz P4 and just about everything top of the line. I installed Mandrake 9.2 last night to find that on the dual boot screen there aer three linux options. THey all lead to a black screen terminal (looks like DOS). how do I get to the operating system? what do I do now? THnaks

win32sux · 04-06-2004, 05:03 PM

if you get a login prompt then that IS the operating system...

=)

what happens is that your aren't running a graphical user interface...

to run the graphical user interface, use the "startx" command...

waster · 04-06-2004, 05:16 PM

i'd suggest that the x server didn't start as this is probably automatic, and you shouldn't need to startx or type kdm manually.
login at the prompt and type:

less /var/log/XFree86.0.log

and search for WW or EE (search invoked by tapping / )

probably a config error which stops your windows starting. Are there errors/warnings?

Try reinstalling Mandrake and not deselecting the desktop environments (principally kde or gnome) bottom left of the config screen when you can select/deselect various high level options.