I am a beginner with linux. I just installed it as of today. I boot up my computer, choose linux, and slackware loads. I am prompted to log in. I don't remember setting up any login info, aside from an admin password, but I realized if i enter root as the username and then my password, I am logged in. I then type startx, and it appears to start loading... and then my monitor shuts off like it would after being inactive for a certain period of time. I press the power button to completely turn it off, and then I turn it on again. The background is either fuzzy, or horizontal white lines are scrolling along the back, and it says to check my signal cable. I tried hitting control alt delete to reboot, but nothing seems to respond. I need to press my computer's power button to turn it off, and then turn it back on again. It loads normally again, and prompts me of which OS to boot with. The monitor works fine in windows, and works fine in linux up until I type startx. What the heck is going on ?

Welcome to Linux.

It is a matter of X configuration.

You can either
1) try more user-friendly distro which have better luck in getting X right e.g Fedora

2) search your distro documentation how to configure X.


You may want to double check if your hardware (mainly the garphic card) is supported at all

Enter "xorgconfig" to set up your x-server in the login prompt. You will be asked several questions, including your monitor and graphic card abilities. Try this first.

Furthermore it is not to good to start all things as root Simply create an user account after logging in as root by starting the command "adduser". After that you can log out off the root account and log in again as this newly created user. If you have to give that user special permissions, look at the file /etc/group, where you can assign this user to severeal other groups than just the group "users".

titopoquito

I did my best to configure the x file using xorgconfig, but I still have no luck. It could be because I entered wrong info, I'm not sure. Where can I find the answers to the questions asked in xorgconfig ? How do I find out my vert refresh rate and horizontal sync rate ? And the answers to some of the other questions I am somewhat unsure of...

look up ur monitor information on google or the manufacturers website

The best info you can find and the easiest way to get it is your monitor manual, if you own some?!

titopoquito

P.S.: Welcome to linuxquestions.org!

Or you can cheat and run xorgsetup, which will try to automagically create your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (but you may need to edit it later, as the guesses it makes aren't always right)