Problem with mandrake 9.0....please help

[traineerichie]

I am trying to install mandrake 9.0 dolphin on a machine and the installation process seemed to go fine but when I reboot it loads up to the login screen - I log in and it states that I have sucessfully logged in but then stops. The gui (I think the default is KDE) doesn't load up and I don't know why. I also have no experience of linux so I don't know any of the commands either -I am very keen to learn how to use linux but so far I am stuck.

Anybody with an answer is fantastic and anybody with similar problems I feel sorry for but would like to hear if you solved the problem.

cheers, Richie

[Floppyman]

When you are logged in type the following: startx If that doesn't work try typing in: xinit HTH

[traineerichie]

cheers floppyman - but I tried that and it came up with the same error for both:

execve failed for /etc/x11/x (errno 2)

then after a couple of seconds, again the same for both:

giving up.
xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): unable to connect to x server
xinit: no such process (errno 3): server error.

I am afraid I have no idea what this means except it gives me the impression that the xwindow is not fully installed?

[Floppyman]

Hi,

What videocard do you have? Was it properly detected during the setup? If not, have you looked for drivers for it? HTH

[traineerichie]

As far as I am aware the video card is a Stealth video 2500 series and I think it installed ok - the problem I think is video card/monitor orientated, how do I find the refresh rate and resolution of my monitor? It is very old and I have no idea of the manufacturer or anything (I have no documentation and there is nothing stuck to it)
Also I was intending on replacing the videocard (but I am poor) any suggestions on a cheap card which will do the job?

cheers floppyman - I look forward to the day when I can help

[traineerichie]

I found out the card was a diamond stealth video 2500 and found it in the list I also checked the syschk of the machine and got the resolution of the monitor (I am still not sure of the refresh rate but I read somewhere that the standard is 60hz?) I corrected theese using the XFdrake --expert --noauto command and the following error occurred after typing startx:

no screens found.
X10: fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

After this I checked the XFdrake again and ran a test which came up with the following error:

(EE) no core pointer device specified
(EE) unable to determine the screen layout.

please help - I am trying to reinstall to see if that works.
cheers richie.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

Diamond is diamondmm.com also called sonic blue, now
http://diamondmm.com/support/diamond...p?menu=support is the link to their support area.

The monitors, sometimes you have to go into the parent site of the company to find support on an old monitor.

If this is an old ISA card, it will be a lot harder for software to determine what it is capable of without a lot of user input.

Screens are basically a function of what the card is, or what it's main chip is, how much ram is on the card. What color level you are trying to get: 8 bit, 16 bit, 24, 32. , the monitor resolution capability like 640 x 480, or 600 x 800, whatever, and what the vertical, and horizontal sync ranges are for the monitor. If the monitor is capable of interlaced or non interlaced operation. Those are the pieces of info you are looking for. Because it looks to me like you're going to need the old text program for configuring the x server.