Hi,

I hope someone can help me. I'm very new to Linux and I'm not a techie, so please be patient with this explanation...

I've got a Linux server (running RedHat release 7.3) which I use as part of a system for work. I tried restarting it today after moving it to another office, and I'm not able to get into the Redhat GUI. Instead, it starts up and then asks for the login details in a text-only screen (which I guess is the command line screen).

When I log in, I get the message 'Last login on Friday Aug 26 at 10.14 on tty1' and 'You have mail', then a next line which is '[root@Cain root]#' and i can type commands after that.

I assume that I have logged in, but into the command line screen.

I looked at some beginners sites and read that it was possible to swap between GUI and command line screen by pressing ctrl-alt-F1 or ctrl-alt-f7 at startup. I tried that, but I couldn't get it to work.

The only other information which seems relevant is that during the boot up sequence, as various processes are tested and 'OK' comes up, there is one message that says '/bin/cat: no memory left on device'. I rang up the guy from work who set up the machine in the first place (also not a technie) and he said that he had had this problem in the past and that it was due to the memory being too full to get the operating system running, so I needed to find the command to delete something from memory. Of course, I don't know how to do this!

Anyway - any help would be really appreciated. I need to set up the system for a customer demo on Monday, and I'm getting a bit stressed!


A.

FYI, the command to get into the GUI (X) is 'startx' -- you can try that, once you've logged in, to see if that's all that it takes.

Before doing 'startx' try 'df' to see what your disk space usage is like. That should give you some indication as to whether something is full or not.

It looks like you're computer is booting into the wrong runlevel. Can you post the output of the 'runlevel' command? (just type runlevel without the quotes)

Hi,

I've tried the 'runlevel' command and got 'unknown'.

I've also tried 'startx' and got nowhere. However, when I checked the memory usage, using 'df', I found that one directory was 100% used.

Now I just need to find out which parts of that can be emptied safely....I think it's off to the developer of the software I'm running on this machine to answer that question.

Hello,

I'm actually dealing with the same problem right now. I type runlevel and got a reply of N 3.

Startx is getting me nowhere.

It looks like your computer is in runlevel 3, which is usually a textmode failsafe used in situations where you don't want X to start. Can you post the contents your /etc/inittab?

HI,

Thanks everyone for your input/suggestions.

Apparently the problem was a memory one - I just had to clear out a particular file and it all worked perfectly.

Must say, I'm learning lots about this system - pretty good going for a supremely non-technical person like myself.

Cheers,

A