Mandrake... Help

[lisper]

Hi... having trouble. I installed Mandrake onto my computer earlier... I'm new to Linux completely so do not know what I am talking about. But anyway... the trouble is getting gnome or kde or whatever to start. I think the problem is to do with my monitor or graphics card... I was told to get into XF86Config and manually set such and such things... but I can't seem to access it. I'm aware of the case sensitivity... and I have tried to access it a number of ways. So basically... any suggestions?

[mikeL]

lisper, Welcome to PC Mech, now on to the problem,

I'll guess not able to start KDE or gnome, and you are at the command line ? have you tried typing startx

To run XF86Config you need to be logged in as root,
type the following command "su -" (without quotes) then hit enter
now enter the password that you created for root,
now type XF86Config

Mike

[kilgoretrout]

Post your graphics card and monitor.

You are booting to a command line login I take it. Enter your user name and password. Then at the command prompt run:

$ su
[enter root password]
# XFdrake

That is the grahics configuration tool in mandrake and looks similar to the graphics setup program you should have seen during the install. It's an ncurses based program(a primitive kind of graphics that can be displayed in a command line environment) and you navigate the menus with the keyboard. There you can reset your graphics card, monitor, resolution, color depth, etc and test your configuration to see if it works.

[lisper]

Yes I have already tried all of that - that's what I'm saying... I'm not able to get into it. Which is what I need help with. It won't start. Does anyone know why or have any suggestions?

[lisper]

Sorry... and...

S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR

As for the monitor - all I know is it's a Dell UltraScan.