Member Avatar for condorcanqui

i just installed mandrake and when i boot my machine it jsut sits on the background of my desktop and would not load or give me the log in screen
any suggestions???

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Dani AI

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A short, practical checklist that complements the replies from , , and — aimed at isolating whether this is a bad install, hardware/driver problem, or a user-session/permissions issue (Mandrake 9.1 — hangs after selecting the kernel, before a graphical login).

Switch to a text console and gather the obvious clues. Successful console login means X/display manager or the desktop session is failing; inability to log points to an earlier boot or hardware problem. Key places to inspect are the X logs and the system logs for clear error lines (look for “(EE)” entries), free-disk space, and ownership of per-user desktop files.

Ctrl+Alt+F2
login as root or the normal user
dmesg | less
tail -n 200 /var/log/messages
grep "(EE)" /var/log/Xorg.0.log /var/log/XFree86.0.log 2>/dev/null
df -h
ls -la ~/.Xauthority ~/.ICEauthority ~/.xsession-errors

Common, safe fixes after the checks: if X is crashing, try the distro’s “failsafe”/kernel entry (the “linuxgr” entry already present), or drop X to use a generic driver (edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and set the device driver to vesa as a test). If the session never starts but text login works, rename the user session folders (~/.kde or ~/.gnome) to force a clean session and verify the display manager process is running. Check that / is not full and that .Xauthority/.ICEauthority are owned by the user — incorrect ownership commonly causes immediate session failure.

Sharing files with a Windows ME machine: install Samba, set the workgroup to match the Windows box, enable a home or explicit share in /etc/samba/smb.conf, create a Samba password for the Linux user with smbpasswd -a username, and run the smbd/nmbd daemons. From WinME, access the Linux host by \hostname (ensure Windows file sharing/NetBIOS is enabled and any firewall allows SMB).

If logs are ambiguous, a hardware check (memtest from the boot menu, try the alternate kernel entries) is the next logical step.

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Member Avatar for condorcanqui

i installed mandrake 9.1 and i cannot log into linux at all

Member Avatar for alc6379

You might have just done a bad install. It happens sometimes, and it could be due to a bad burn on your CD.

What I recommend is to redownload the Mandrake images, reburn them, and then reinstall. If you've just installed your new system, the only thing you'll have lost is the time it took to do the first install.

Member Avatar for Dani

cool

Member Avatar for twilli227

I use k3b in linux to burn my isos and it does an automatic md5sum, but that is nice for windows users. :)

Member Avatar for fsn812

If you are refferencing an issue with a GUI desktop:

Check the permissions on your home directory, make sure all the appropriate files (gnome, kde, or other front-end associated) are chown'ed to your username and have the correct rwx permissions.

If you are refferencing an issue directly after boot, such as sitting at a kernel prompt:

I have not used Mandrake in a long time but there should be a 'Rescue' option if you boot from CD. Use the rescue option, and take a look at your kernel and your lilo or grub config.

At what specific point does your system hang? By specific I mean does it hang at a desktop (GUI) loading screen? Does it stop whjile saying "Loading Kernel"?

Also, does it lock up in the same place, every time? If not, this may be a hardware issue.

Member Avatar for condorcanqui

it hangs after the screen that gives u the options to choose linux, linuxgr and 2 other options, after i choose linux it seems that is loading and i do not get the log in screen it hang right before that
I reloaded the system and it worked and it seemd fine, but i have another questions, i'm trying to have my linux and WINME share files, where do i find that option??

Member Avatar for fsn812

With regards to your question about WINME and Linux sharing files, do a search for a thread about Samba. I am sure there are some within the forums. This link below should help. It is an article explaining an answer in detail:

"Windows File Sharing in Linux with Samba"


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