Hi all, I am new to Linux and hope someone can help me. I have installed linux 7.2 RedHat on my P4 machine. During installation I clicked on GNOME and KDE options. Installation went fine but when the computer starts I don't see any GUI. I get a prompt line efter I have logged in. My question is why I don't get GUI(GNOME or KDE), how i can get that. thanks in advance. regards /rsasalm

Did you install X and KDE and/or Gnome? Had you installed X, you should, by default, be booting to the GUI. However, you can do one of 2 things (at least): Change this line (using a text editor, such as "joe", "emacs", "jed", or "vi") in the file /etc/inittab: id:3:initdefault: and change it to id:5:initdefault: Then, from a command prompt, enter "startx" (plus <ENTER>). Otherwise (and this is what I'd do), reinstall and choose "everything" (it's at the bottoms of the list) when asked what packages to install. Good luck.

Something else I thought might be helpful - Redhat 7.2 came out 3 years ago, and if you plan on downloading and using new software, expect to update numerous libraries (via RPMs), assuming current compatible ones even exist. Therefore, I'd recommend at least Redhat 9, but would rather see you download and use the latest Fedora. I've recently switched from Redhat 8 to Fedora Core 3 (in part due to the problem I've alluded to above) and have not been displeased. You don't mention how much memory you have on your P4, but if you are considering Fedora, you'll want at least 256 meg (128 for Redhat 9). Good luck.

Another suggestion is that you might have an incorrect X configuration for your video card, monitor, etc. If the resolution, refresh, color depth, etc. settings are wrong, the server won't start. Check your logs to see what's going on. I suspect that you'll find the init is already configured to boot up to runlevel 5 unless you specifically selected runlevel 3 as your preferred bootup. Typing, "startx" at the prompt will also give you clues since many of the X server status messages go to stdout when invoked from the command prompt. If it fails to start, you should see a bunch of errors printed to your console. Good luck! Rob Pectol http://rob.pectol.com/

Thanks for reply. Now I remember that during installation I got a message to choose "Video ...." which I choos to skip. Now I try to edit the file inittab and I got the message that file cann't be written because of write permission. Then I try to change the write permission as follow > chmod 755 inittab I get message "Operation not permitted" What is going wrong? I know that it might sound you very basic thing but as I told I am new to this stuff. Hope someone can guide me. thanks regards /rsasalm

Sorry, I forgot one thing. As I told in my recent mail that I choos "Skip X Video ...." during installation. The reason for that was I didn't know which one option I should have taken. That is why I choos "Skip X video..." option. Now my question is how one should know which one option should be used. ( I want to know so that I don't repeat the same mistake if I reinstall linux again. thanks again regards /saleem

As to your "chmod" question, are you "root" when you are attempting to modify /etc/inittab? If you login as root before attempting to edit this file, you shouldn't need to mess with permissions (by the way, it should be "644", not "755"). If you want to modify your X settings after installation (or instead of reinstalling), try entering this at the command prompt (after you are logged in as root): # redhat-config-xfree86 If this doesn't work, try # xf86config Good luck.