every time i go to load linux, all the booting messages say: [OK]. When its time to login (I login through the KDE interface) The monitor screws up switching from stanby mode on and off. When the screen does display something i catch a glimps of the console (not kde) based loggin. This problem started after I installed Win2000. Win2000 works fine. I'm loading the linux kernel from the emergency disk since lilo never loaded onto the MBR. That shouldn't be a problem though, because the floppy worked fine untill I loaded Win2000 and the error occours after all floppy disk activity has ceased. I just never got around to loading lilo into the MBR yet.... Any help would be greatly appreciated linux_newbie

Try running the X config program again, under redhat I think it's called redhat-config-xsetup

thnx 3Dave but how do i force linux to skip the loading of KDE? is there an equivalent to M$s' F5 or F8? The "press I to start interactive starup" doesn't work. Or do i need to use a boot floppy/CD? Also i was thinking of reloading redhat to fix it. would i loose my mp3s in the /root/desktop/ folder, and will i loose the ability to load into windows (the whole idea behind this linux-windows project was to have a dual boot so i can enjoy windows, while slowly learning linux so I can ditch M$ once and for all) thnx for any help Linux_newbie

You shouldn't have to re-install....if you do though you shouldn't lose your stuff unless you choose to format the partitions during setup. I am not familiar with redhat, but I did an install of slackware "over-the-top" of an existing install (a la windoze) to fix a major problem....and it kept all my config files intact! You will often get an "upgrade" options when installing linux if it detects a previous install, you probably would want to do that. But as I said....you shouldn't need to reinstall. Do you know about runlevels? A brief summary that covers most distros: runlevel | what it is ===================== 0 = halt (shutdown the system) 1 = single user (like safe mode) 2 = multi user 3 = networked multi user (default) 4 = unused (but some do!) 5 = graphical multi user (new default?!) 6 = reboot (er...reboot!=o) You can change the currect run level with the init command, eg: # init 1 will switch it into single use mode. If you want to boot into a specific mode, you can pass the parameter at boot time. At the lilo/grub prompt (if you have a graphical display and don't see a command line, try pressing escape) type: linux 1 This will boot your default image (linux?) into run level 1 (safe mode). You are then often prompted for root's password, can fix the problem and then either reboot or use the init command. I would suggest for you to boot into runlevel 3 ("linux 3" at thr lilo prompt), log in as root and then setup X. You can try it out with the "startx" command to see if it works. FYI, if you want to change the default runlevel when your PC boots, edit /etc/inittab and change the line: id:5:initdefault: to id:3:initdefault: The above example sets default to text mode. Obviously do not change this to 0 or 6 otherwise your PC will keep turning off!=o)

well i'm getting progress... I managed to boot linux using the runlevel method. It seems its Xwindows that is screwing up. I tried your redhat-config-xsetup trick but it got me nowhere. I did a "find -name *setup*" and none of the results seemed to be X related... I'm going to reinstall redhat but if you have any other suggestions they'd be appreciated for any future inconvinances.. thnx newbie

Thnx dave for the runlevel tip!!! now i can boot my system and even managed to troubleshoot why lilo wasn't loading onto the MBR... i needed to modify lilo.conf and add lba32 to it. That said X windows is compleatly dead. if i start the computer without using the boot laoder trick you showed me it just hangs. Nothing works to revive it. If i boot on runlevel 3 then startx still hangs my system, but i can manage to kill the process. redhat-config-xsetup does seem to exist... thanks for any help newbie

Try one of the following: xf86cfg xf86config xfree86setup Xconfigurator Alternatively you could have a look at /etc/X11/XF86Config(-4) and edit by hand. Once you have booted and killed off the X process, type "startx" and look through the last few lines of output to see why it crashed. Post it up here.... You can always look at /var/log/XFree86.0.log too for any errors.