Strike 2!

[thirstinhowl]

im new to linux. today i purchased and installed mandrake 8.1 on my computer after being let down over the summer when i tried to install 8.0 with no luck.after install went smooth(besides the installer telling me to go to a nonexistent www.linmodems.com)so after the install i reboot got the load screen.....everything loads than BAM black screen and thats it! i can move the mouse pointer but nothing else.does anyone have any suggestions except to give up on linux altogether! Thanks

System: IBM Aptiva(late 1999), 500 AMD AThlon, 96mb ram, 17gig hd quantum fireball, soundblaster live Xgamer, Ati Radeon(32mb)pci, USB Mouse.

[Master of Reality]

so, linux starts, and you have it automatically using the X login? And instead of the x windows login, it goes black?
 Or, is it that when your computer starts up, it goes black?

[thirstinhowl]

->linux starts, and you have it automatically using the X login? YES And instead of the x windows login, it goes black?

Yes and Yes

[Master of Reality]

hmmmm... could it be that your monitor or video card has been setup wrong?
If mandrake automatically setup your video, this is possible. It is also easy to fix from the command line.

If you boot up off your mandrake CD, go into rescue mode by pressing F1 at the splash and typing rescue.
After you get into there i believe you can type "setup" then a menu will come up, choose X configuration and it will ask you what video card, monitor you have. It will update your X configuration file with the new info about your video card and monitor.

I'm pretty sure you should be able to do this in rescue mode. I've used linux off and on (like you) and have frequented using it recently.

[thirstinhowl]

Thanks, but that didnt do it.

[Calum]

i had a similar but not identical problem on my laptop.

I sorted it by searching using Google for a fix. I had to search using the number and make of my video card chipset et cetera.
Maybe you would want to try and perform a similar search for such keywords as the manufacturer of any video hardware you are using, and any numbers corresponding to such hardware, including the word 'linux' in the search.
Chances are, you will find some newsgroup posts related to your kit and some fixes/patches to workaround or fix that problem...