i just finished installing slack 9.1 on an old 200mhz box, and i have suse 9.0 on a separate box. i want to learn more about linux, but i am kind of stuck on what to do. what do all of you guys typically do when you after starting a new installation? (just wanted ideas)

one other thing, after running startx and quiting, my box hangs with just a black screen, so i just restart the comp. is it that im just being to impatient to wait for something to happen because the box is too slow? i use the xfce WM and just click on the quit button.

thanks

If you really want to learn alot about linux and how everything works I suggest you trying out LFS.
www.linuxfromscratch.org


Far as your question... is your monitor still recieving a signal??? Could be that the monitor can not display those paticular frequency ranges.

having a blank screen when you quit is probably one of the "first" thing to do/fix after installing linux.

try typing "poweroff" without ""
if it doesnt work, then it probably has something to do with apm or acpi..
try editing your /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
and uncomment:
#/sbin/modprobe apm
exit your editor
type: modprobe apm
then poweroff
just a try..

or maybe you are not using an atx tower.. doesnt shutdown automatically and you have to manually push the poweroff button.

if you are just trying to logout then try hitting crtl+aly+backspace to terminate x and figure out your refresh rate or something...

due to the nature of my devices not working with kernel modules and overall total newbieness of me i did 2 things (on my 3rd clean installation that evening):
-"make menuconfig" and saved the default settings
-copied the default kernel to a unique name "defslack" and edited lilo accordingly to get the stupid computer up every time i have messed something
-followed the instructions found on this forum to build a new kernel (to get my usb devices working, which they didn´t when usb support was as a module)

-whenever i edit a .conf-file i add comments about what i have done and what the default options are so that i don´t have to remember and dig if i want to change something later. also that way i know afterwards what i have messed up (again). This is because i am very keen to learn all the bells and whistles now instead of configuring a working system and leaving it that way.

but then again, i´m with

Install frozen-bubble and tuxracer. For my kids, of course.

What you need to do first sounds like different than what others might do. Unless you have some exotic hardware, I would leave the kernel stuff alone for now. One of the stock kernels should work for you. If the screen goes blank on startx, have you tried to configure X. If not you should try doing that. There are several ways to do that. From a root prompt try one of the following xfree86setup, xf86config. After you get X running then you can go from there. Actually if you want to learn linux, forget about setting up X and use the console for a month or two. Work with fetchmail and mutt for your email. Use BitchX or irssi or epic for irc. Use slrn or tin for usenet. Use lynx or links for web pages. Use centericq for aim and icq. You don't always need a pretty picture on the screen.

Sorry the wisecracker response before. It was early and I was a little sleepy and slap happy. Anyway, here is an excellent site for you:

http://members.cox.net/laitcg/new/intro.html

Here is the section you will probably be most interested in:

"Post Slackware Installation.

Ok, you've just installed Slackware Linux and have logged in as root. What now? Your system still needs some tweaks. To be specific, some system hardening, peripheral setup, and maybe some customizations, so..."

Maybe it's a framebuffer issue. When the computer boots is the screen also black until X starts or do you see kernel messages?

I agree. In fact, I'm an all-console person now. Slack has a strong association with the console. Having a slow system made me read even more. After I installed slack, I took my time working and tinkering around it. I often reinstall if something very wrong happens. Then I began reading the documentations and HOWTO's. There is so much inside the distro. Make use (abuse!) of all of them.