I lost my GUI in Suse Linux 8.1

[Linuxus3r 0]

Hi guys,

 

First of all, I just wanna let you guys know that I'm a new linux user, so bear with the question. I had installed Linux 8.1 in a multiboot environment, windows 2000. Both os boot up fine, I have no trouble getting into windows 2000. For Linux, I was fine until I manually updated the system through the Yast configuration. Once it was updated, the two thigs that required for me to do was 1) execute /sbin/lilo which I think I did, I just went into the home directory and look for the path and clicked on the file /sbin/lilo. 2) Required for me to download the latest nvidia driver, which I didn't do. Once I rebooted all I was getting was the post looking like thing, which gave the done and failed status, right after that it doesn't prompt me to the GUI that I used to get, where it asks for the user name, password and the selection of modes. Now I only get is the command lines where it asks for the user name and password, once I enter them, the GUI doesn't appear but just the command line. How do I get the GUI back without having to rebuild it?

 

Thanks in advance!!

[danleff 0]

Welcome!

 

First, let me ask some questions.

 

Did you do the online update, or system update when you used Yast2? I have never done the system update, but will try to help.

 

Do you have a NVIDIA video card in your system? Maybe you could give some specs. on your system, which may help troubleshoot.

 

Lilo, the bootloader is invoked by typing the following at a command line (terminal window);

 

/sbin/lilo

 

It sounds like the X (graphical environment) may have gotten toasted in the process. Let's try this. When you get the command prompt that asks for the username, type in the username that you picked during the install, hit the enter key. When prompted for the password, enter the user password that you picked during the install.

 

If you get just a command prompt, with no errors, which you should, then type the following at the command line;

 

startx

 

Let us know if you get the GUI, or a bunch of errors.

 

If the GUI does not come up, try the /sbin/lilo command as stated above. This should give you a list of the boot options that lilo added. Once this is done, then type the following;

 

su (hit the enter key)

 

If prompted for the password, enter the root password (not the user password), then hit the enter key.

 

Type in reboot (hit the enter key). Allow the system to reboot, get into SuSE and see what happens.

[Linuxus3r 0]

Thanks for the help!! But what I ended up doing was rebuilding Linux. Yes, you were right, I didn't update the system, it was the online update. By the way i have an nvidia geforce 64mb.

 

I want to rebuild it and update it online the right way this time (I chose ALL the options on the online update), that's the reason why I chose to rebuild it, I'm pretty sure that I chose something that made it go into that mode, so, thanks again for the reply... just curious, is there something (on the online update) that I shouldn't update that can make it go unstable?

[danleff 0]

Here is my take on the process. If it ain't broke, don't fix everything. 8.1 is fairly old, in Linux terms. But, if you have a computer system that is older (2 years or more), then 8.1 should meet your basic needs. I would try the system out and see if it meets your needs. If you do the online update, look for the entries in red, usually these are security and important updates, choose these. The others in black are updates of packages and the kernel. Ditto on the NVIDIA drivers. I have not done this yet, as I do not need a gamer's environment.

 

At first, stay away from up[censored] the kernel packages and skip NVIDIA, unless you need 3D video. These are not for the faint of heart. Once you get comfortable, or feel the need to update the video drivers, you can experiment later.

[Linuxus3r 0]

Thanks again for the quick reply and explanation. You have been very helpful.