Hey there UNix world. I am not sure if this question is being posted in the correct spot, but i am sure it will be moved if it isnt.


Ok i have tried about 30 times to load my laptop with both red hat 7.1 and mandrake 7.2... I understand there are hotter versions out there but bear with me.

hardware == Processor: Intel Celeron processor 566 MHz

System bus: 66 MHz system bus

Cache: 128 KB L2 Pipeline Burst Cache

Display: 13" HPA display

System Memory: 192 MB 100 MHz SyncDRAM,
Integrated Hard Drive: 6.0 GB hard drive

CD-ROM Drive: 24X Max CD-ROM drive

Modem: 56K ITU V.90 modem

Graphics: Trident Cyberblade 3D Graphics
(user configurable up to 8 MB) High-performance 3D graphics

Maximum internal resolution: 800 x 600 x 16M
bit CardBus



So I put in my red hat disk and it runs through with no trouble. i can see and everything is great. I pic the video card and monitor(wich i suspect is my problem ) and get through everything well when i restart and have it load up gnome the red hat gets to the logon portion and gets stuck in a loop of death ... logson flashes logs on flashes ... My thoughts are that i did not pick a monitor or video card to its likeing ( i wish i knew what it was using for the install because that works great... )
i also reloaded redhat and had it boot in text mode ( works fine there) went into root and ran the Xconfigurator i dont know what chip set the comp has and when i load even standard vga and generic lcd display 800* 600 it goes to test it and only 1/4 of the screen is visable...


The trouble with the mandrake is everything gets loaded just fine but when it goes to start in KDE the screen looks light and overlaped and just overall unfunctional...

i figure this is the best place to come for an answer and if you dont know what the deal if you knew what the default selections the initial loading portion of either one uses that would be just fine...

thanks alot


Cerberus

Check the logs in the /var/log directory. Check "messages" and "syslog". It should give you a hint.

I've had similar problems like that, usually caused by an improper shutdown, and it leaves a lock file out there somewhere, so it tries to start up, complains about an abnormal shutdown or implicit server kill, then loops...

I ended up just booting into the command line, then starting it manually via "startx". That way, you'll get the error messages on your screen.

Please let us know if you find anything.