Help needed with Linux Mandrake


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Hello every one...

I am a usual Microsoft fan...love Windows XP...recently heard alot about Linux so though that should give it a try...

I got hands on Cds of Linux Mandrake 9.0...

The installation was smooth on my Home Computer which is running on Intel P4 2.0 Ghz Processor with 512MB of RAM and had used 30GB (pretty old) hard disk for this test drive...

Now every thing went ok...

When it started for first time, it was taking alot of time in the boot up process I thought its first time so may be thats the reason...

Here is the screenshots of the place where it takes alot of time...

post-23116-1114355059.jpg

post-23116-1114355089.jpg

Its ok if it takes time...I dont have any queries regarding this...may be its a problem with my system or something...thats why I thought to tell this thing as well...

Now the main problem I am facing is that a Login thing appears...its so much like DOS...

I enter my Username and password there...and then this screen appears..its also in DOS..sorry for the bad picture quality...was not able to take correctly the so white font out of the Monitor :D ...

post-23116-1114355213.jpg

now...I dont know what to do beyond this. I tried giving some DOS commands which I know but they dint work...All I was able to work with was HELP...when I do this some strange help stuff appears which I dont understand at all...

and then I was able to figure out another command which kind of Exits the current user...

Now I am wondering where and how do I go to the Linux Mandrake GUI one! I wont be sitting to the screen for this DOS thing ofcourse...

I am missing in some part...

Please help..

Incase the picture is not clear...

this is what I get after giving username and password...

Last login: blah blah blah

[abulhassan@localhost abulhassan]$

i have to write something in front of $ if i want it to work..

what do i do..

plz help me..

as soon as possible...

Another thing i want to ask is that is it possible to like connect a Linux Mandrake computer with another computer which has got Windows XP Pro installed...networking between these two is possible..if yes then how?

And another question is that what file system does a Linux Mandrake uses? will I be able to access my personal data if stored via Linux Mandrake after connecting the hard disk directly to thee computer running Windows XP or via a USB-IDE interface..

Will I be able to get that??

I need reply very urgently plz...

Thanks in Advance

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Not sure about the bootup time being slow, but the problem certainly seems to be that X (the GUI) isn't starting up for some reason.

Could be that you didn't install KDE or Gnome (not very likely, if you accepted default options), or that you selected (or it detected) your video hardware incorrectly, and it tried to use a mode that just isn't possible.

If you are willing to learn a bit of commandline stuff, we can try to fix it in text mode. If that really is more than you want to tackle at this time, a re-install might work (select a generic VESA mode resolution like 1024x768 or even 800x600)

EDIT: Another option, since this topic has a subtitle of 'test drive', is to use Knoppix. Try it as a LiveCD, and if you like it (and if it works -- it usually does), you can install it to your hard drive. (Y)

Thanks for your reply...

Well, I have actually installed it on Default option...as I dint have any experience with this Linux Mandrake or any other version of Linux...

Video hardware I selected in setup when tested it turned out to be false there...then I changed it back to the Default one which Linux setup had detected and then I clicked test and no error appeared. I got some graphics on Monitor screen and it was OK...

I will be more than happy to fix it in Command line mode....Will wait for a few replies after that I will be doing a re-install of it...I dont think it will solve the problem so please if Command line mode getting it ok is possible then tell me asap how do I do it?

Plus thanks for the nice suggestion to use like LIVE Linux from Windows...I cannot do this actually. I got hands on this Linux Mandrake 9.0 from a local shop very difficultly as they dont sell Linux stuff over here...and most of the Cds which you will see here are pirated...and we dont have got any Legal vendors who sell proper legal software or I would have bought!and I dont have a good speed internet that I would download the ISO from some Linux website and then burn to cds!

Thanks again for replying...

  Quote
Another thing i want to ask is that is it possible to like connect a Linux Mandrake computer with another computer which has got Windows XP Pro installed...networking between these two is possible..if yes then how?

And another question is that what file system does a Linux Mandrake uses? will I be able to access my personal data if stored via Linux Mandrake after connecting the hard disk directly to thee computer running Windows XP or via a USB-IDE interface..

Will I be able to get that??

Also reply to this please...

Thanks!

Yes, Linux and Windows will network together quite well.

Mandrake uses 'ext3' as its default filesystem. Linux will read Microsoft filesystems fine, Microsoft will not read Linux ones at all. I think you can install a 3rd party app in Windows that will read ext2/3 filesystems, but not sure.

As for your problem, can you login at the commandline? You will need to login as root to do some of these changes, so make sure you can log in as root.

EDIT: I haven't used Mandrake in a long time. A quick google seems to indicate that the command to re-select your X configuration is XFdrake. In *nix, remember, case is important. If that command isn't recognized, try again, but only type in the first 3 letters or so, then hit [TAB] to show auto-complete options.

  markjensen said:
Yes, Linux and Windows will network together quite well.

Mandrake uses 'ext3' as its default filesystem.  Linux will read Microsoft filesystems fine, Microsoft will not read Linux ones at all.  I think you can install a 3rd party app in Windows that will read ext2/3 filesystems, but not sure.

As for your problem, can you login at the commandline?  You will need to login as root to do some of these changes, so make sure you can log in as root.

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Thanks again for your reply :).

Hmm...so I will be needing a 3rd party app in Windows...

Yes I can login at the command line...with the username which I gave...I had set a password for root as well which I remember quite well lolz so all I have to do is enter root in the username? and ofcourse the password which I gave by then...

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