ok, i mentioned this in another thread of mine, sorry for the repetition, but that thread is about something else. so my problem is with xwindows. i boot up my machine running mdk 9.1, and it goes to text login. after about 30 seconds it goes to gui login whether or not i've logged in under text. i dont have user accounts (don't tell me how important that is, i know, i'm working on it) so i login under root. at the gui screen i type in root, then enter because i haven't gotten around to creating a root password. i also dont really feel this is necessary since that computer isnt connected to the internet. anyhow, after i do the gui login as root, i get a red screen with a clock in the upper right hand corner of my screen. if i left click on the red area, i get a menu of sorts. it has a few options, but none of the programs that i've read about. where are the programs? i'm pretty sure i installed them. and how do i access them? i've read about kde and gnome, what exactly are they, what's the difference between them and xwindows, and how do i run them? if someone could inform me of this stuff i'd be a very happy linux user.

thanks
Elise

What desktop environment are you using when this problem occurs? (IceWM, KDE, GNOME, etc.)

i really don't know. how do i use one of these desktop environments? like i said before, i'm pretty sure i installed kde and gnome.

Mandrake does this on purpose i.e red background screen and no desktop icons so you do not login as root. Do you not have a toolbar? Didn't you get a popup waring box stating that fact?

If you login as a regular user you will see a normal desktop with icons. Did you create a regular user? 99.9% of the time you do not need to login as root, just use the su command.

X windows is the server and KDE, Gome etc are windows managers i.e the desktop that runs in x.

http://www.plig.org/xwinman/

I'm not the greatest Linux guru, but I'll try my best to be helpful ;^)

Ok, you can read up on KDE and GNOME by visiting their websites at http://kde.org and http://gnome.org. Those are Desktop environments. Those show you the graphical desktop, also allowing graphical apps to be run. (It's not the best definition ;^))

Ever use Windows (blah)? Then you have used a desktop. Except KDE and GNOME are for Linux, so they have certain options that Windows doesn't, since Linux is based on UNIX.

Those explanations could use some work ;^)

ok, i currently can't login as a user because i'm having problems with my /etc/shadow file. that's another story. i didnt get any warning when i logged in as root. is there nothing i can do while logged in as root? and what about loggin in as a single user, how does that work, and would that solve my problem?

thx,
Elise

As root find the KDE option to open either MCC(Mandrake Controle Center) or just a normal command line.
In the MCC find the option to make a user account. And if you want to keep things normal to most people( I would it helps in getting help) make a root password while there.
OR
while on the command line type
man -a useradd
This will give you the instructions for making a user account.
If you need more help just post back.

Ass stated before Mandrake keeps the root gui stripped cleen so you won't find it normal and use it instead.

i've read the man pages for useradd, and it currently doesn't work because my /etc/shadow file is missing. i'm working on that, i have another thread with that question. right now i'm just wondering how kde and gnome work. what are they, which is better?

Personally, I prefer KDE, however there is nothing wrong with GNOME! I simply find KDE more user friendly for me. I think someone already explained what they are... ;^)

Like I said, you can visit both KDE's and GNOME's websites I mentioned earlier and find more info on them over there.

ComputerGirl--

Try pressing ctrl-alt-backspace. That' "supposed" to kill your X session and drop you back to a console. Doesn't work for me, but it might work for you.

If you have any way of doing it, you can edit /etc/inittab and change the runlevel from 5 to 3. On reboot, you will find yourself with a text-based login only. No X windows session will start. From there, you can edit away and try different stuff. When you want to have the gui load after future boots, be sure to change /etc/inittab runlevel back to 5.

I think if you create a user, you should find a more functional X windows desktop.

Ignore that post by Stonehurst or whoever. There's no relevant info there.

di11rod

ok, i dont have trouble with x, i can get out with ctrl+alt+F6, and then i login to the console. it works fine, it's just i'm not sure what to type in after logging in.

Try

startx or kde

Post back any errors.

startx works fine, but it just gets me to a red screen with a clock in the corner. i'll have to try kde again because i forget what it did when i tried that before.

You're logging in as the root administrator. Please don't. It just makes getting help harder because everyone else assumes your running as a normal user.

Please make a normal user either from the command line or from MCC.

If your logged in as root anything you can't do as a normal user you'll be asked for the root password or you can open up a small command line screen and su - to root and do your administrator things from there.

I've only run across installing the Nvidia drivers that need to have the X screen session closed and run as root from command line only. Other than that everything can be done from a normal user starting point.

By the way your already in KDE but as mentioned before as the root admin.