broke my linux

[Trio3b]

Uh oh! Newb may have just broken MDK 10.0 Linux. During install I configured with LILO to autoload KDE 3.2 desktop. Everything has been fine until.........Yesterday accidently shutoff power . Now during boot, something about loopback interface.....CUPS may not work properly. Then it only boots to '-bash' , which I believe is a shell. Then I need to log in under localhost.........then I need to log in as root.........then I need to enter 'KDE'..... only then do I get my desktop. Then when I want out, I can only log out of the session. There is no option to shutdown the PC from KDE. I have to reenter the shell...and then 'shutdown -h now' . This is obviously not going to work over the long haul. If I damaged these files.......who knows what else? This is my practice Linux PC. I don't have any important files. Need advice about this:
I can only devote a limited time to learn about checking the filesystem and fixing it.
OR ....I can reload the OS in about 30 min.
What would you do?
Thanks for any help

[AlexK]

It sounds like some of your files got corrupted. If I had to go through such thiings to log on and off, I would reinstall immedately. It is not worth spending more time than required to fix up a practice system, even if you gain some experience.

In short, just reinstall.

[drakebasher]

30 minutes isn't long to re-install, but what if it happens again in 6 months when you have your system loaded with good stuff?

For the loopback interface, check to make sure your file /etc/hosts has this line:

127.000.000.001 localhost.localdomain   localhost

[budman7]

should be 127.0.0.1, I don't know if this will amke a difference, just thought I would let you know

[drakebasher]

should be 127.0.0.1, I don't know if this will amke a difference, just thought I would let you know

No, it doesn't make a difference. I have the 3-digit format so it will look better when it lines up with other entries. The numbers as shown are decimal format, but the OS doesn't use them until they are converted to binary, so either way the last of the dotted quads is '00000001'.