plz big problem

[SuSe Linux 0]

when i installed SuSe all was right.icould boot and do stuff.but suenly it get me in something likw dos and asks me for user name and pass.i enter administrator but when it asks pass i cant press any key,so the only option is to press enter.this continues for infinite time.......what happened?

 

 

(suse 8.2 pro)

[Admiral LSD 0]

;( And people wonder why I hate n00b distros like Red Hat...

 

First off, it sounds like, for some reason, you've been knocked out of your graphical login manager. Second, the superuser account in Linux isn't usually referred to as "Administrator" but rather "root". Thirdly, it's quite normal for Linux to hide your keystrokes when typing in a password at a regular text login screen, it's a security precaution.

 

You should already know what the root password is as you would have most certainly been prompted to enter it when you set SuSe up so assuming you can get to a prompt, try typing

 

Code:

startx

 

to see if we can't get into X manually. If you can then somehow the systems default runlevel has been changed. To change it back you need to open the file /etc/inittab in a text editor, and look for a line like:

 

Code:

id:3:initdefault:

 

and change it to read

 

Code:

id:5:initdefault:

 

If you can't start X manually, then most likely your main X config file, XF86Config, has had strange things done to it. The easiest and most distribution independent way to fix it temporarily (you'll be without stuff like mousewheel support in the beginning but it'll get you into the GUI where you can choose more appropriate options using whatever GUI tools SuSe provides for setting X up) is to use the xf86config script that comes with X to set it up by hand. It'll require a fair bit of knowledge of things like your keyboard, mouse video card and monitor type but all of this info should either already be known to you (and when in doubt, generic options are usually a safe choice) or located in the manual (you'll need the manual for your monitor at least as this is most likely where the horizontal and vertical sweep frequencies are listed and you'll need these) for your particular hardware.

[SuSe Linux 0]

im trying it now...

i will tell ya...

[SuSe Linux 0]

startx didnt worked...

which distro do you thinjk worth?

i have bought suse pro 8.2 before 4 days.im new in this stuff.

i was about to buy mandrake but someone suggested suse as the best ;(

[Admiral LSD 0]

OK if startx didn't work that means theres something wrong with the main X configuration file which means we now know why the graphical login manager doesn't work. Fixing this is going to be a real pain in the arse for both me and you because I don't know enough about SuSE to advise you on an easier method and for you because you don't seem to know enough about Linux to understand a word of what I'm about to tell you.

 

As I mentioned before, the xf86config (type xf86config at a prompt and press enter) script is probably the best way to proceed at this point as I know for sure you'll have it on your system and I don't know enough about SuSE to advise an easier method. You'll need to know the following things about your system before you proceed:

 

1. Mouse Type. Your mouse probably won't be listed under it's model name so you're going to have to take an educated guess as to which one to use. PS/2 Intellimouse or generic PS/2 or Microsoft mouse are probably good choices if you don't know. You'll be asked some question about 3 button support but if you use a wheel mouse these won't be necessary as your mouse will already have three buttons. You'll also be prompted for your mouse device. As the default is usually acceptable it's safe to just press enter here

 

2. Keyboard type. Again, as with the mouse type, it's highly unlikely your keyboard will be listed by name so again you'll have to make an educated guess. If in doubt, generic 101 or 104 (if your keyboard has windows keys) should be a safe choice. You'll have to select your language type next so follow the directions to make your choice. You'll be asked a couple more questions after this for stuff like a name for the keyboard variant and Xkb options. It's perfectly safe to accept the default variant name and select 'n' for the XKb options.

 

3. Your monitors horizontal and vertical sync ranges. Again, your particular monitor model will no be listed however it's not safe to just take a guess here as theres a very real chance you'll cause permenent damage to your monitor. The best thing to do here is find the exact sync ranges your monitor uses (either in its manual or online) and enter them as custom ranges. You'll also be asked to assign a name for your monitor definition but if you don't want to, it's perfectly safe to enter your way through this part.

 

4. Your video card type. This is the only part of the procedure where the possibility exists that your hardware will be identified by name. Press Enter to scroll your way through the list until you find you card name or failing that, go back to the beginning and pick a generic driver for your particular cards chipset (eg nv for nvidia cards, radeon or ati for ATi cards etc). You'll be shown your selection to confirm it so just press enter here. You'll then be prompted for the amount of video ram your card has. I'm not quite sure why they still include this step as the vram line is commented out in the resulting file but just humour them and pick a value that's fairly cose to the amount of ram on your card. Again, you'll be prompted to name your card definition and again if you don't want to, it's perfectly safe to press enter here.

 

 

Once you get that out of the way, you can start to select what video modes and colour depths you want to use. This part is entirely up to you, provided you've set the previous sections up properly the worst that can happen from a wrong pick here is that X simply won't start meaning you'll probably have to start from the beginning but you won't damage anything. The best way to go here though is to pick the resolution and colour depth you normally use under Windows eg: If you use a resolution of 1024x768 and a colour depth of 24 bits press 3, enter, 4, enter.

 

X lets you select a resolution thats much bigger than what your monitor supports by using one that does as a "window" onto the larger desktop navigable by mving the mouse pointer to the far edge of the direction you want to move in. For the sake of expedience, it's probably best to select n here. when you get back to the mode listing press 4 to continue on with the configuration. The next step will be defined by what colour depth you chose in the last one. If you chose 24 bit like in my example, press 5 and then enter otherwise pick the value you did choose and select that instead. Next, select yes to write a new XF86Config file and hopefully X will start properly again. As I said earlier, you won't have stuff like mousewheel support working (that requires config file editing which I'm not sure your ready for yet) but once you're actually in the GUI it should be a simple matter of setting X up properly using whatever tools SuSE provide for the purpose.

[SuSe Linux 0]

thnx for the help m8.

i will re-install the linux fromthe beggining (i think its the bestnow im crewed..)

[Admiral LSD 0]

You shouldn't have to reinstall, this isn't Windows and it really is a relatively simple mess you've gotten yourself into. As long as you can get XFree86 configured right, using xf86config or whatever else SuSE uses for X configuration, you should be right and in addition you'll have learnt a little bit more about Linux troubleshooting as a bonus

[GhostSong 0]

Greetings,

 

I dont think that he/she did something in order to ovveride /etc/inittab | ::3/::5 ,

 

The only thing that may did that and instead of X you get console is an updated XFree so it messed up with the config files

 

Farewell