Help needed for PCLinuxOS

[mvharish]

I've installed PCLinuxOS successfully on my computer. When i turn my comp on,
an interface called grub starts where i can choose the OS I want to use. I choose PCLinux. A whole lot of text starts appearing on the screen, which looks like the OS starting up. I'm asked for my login name and password, which I enter. Then I'm asked for:
[harish@loginame~]$
What is this? How do I get my usual GUI back?

[adwilson99]

don't panic! that means that your OS has booted successfully. Remember the old Windows and DOS days? well you have reached the "Shell prompt" in linux, just type "startx" to get back into your Xwindows. if that doesn't work try gdm or kdm (can't remember which one PCLinuxOS uses).

You'll probably then want to configure PCLinuxOS to boot up in graphics mode rather than text mode. I've never used PCLinuxOS, you'll have to search around a bit on how to do that, if they have a control panel or something that lets you do it then great! if not you can edit the file /etc/initrd and set the default run level, the file it's self should tell you which one is the graphics mode, normally run level 3 I think, but check the file or search on google. and last but not least BACK UP THE FILE FIRST! ... somethings are worth shouting about

[mvharish]

gdm doesn't work.
only root wants to run kdm.
startx makes some more text appear, but takes me back to [harish@localhost~]$ (sorry, it's localhost not loginame.)

[adwilson99]

No problems, log in as root and try kdm.

If you get lots of text on the screen try putting " > myfile.txt" after the command, that will send all the text to a file. You can then upload that file to this forum, so we can see what errors you're getting.

[mvharish]

when i type kdm, the message [root@localhost~]# appears again. no other message. i typed kdm 20 times, but nothing..

[adwilson99]

Ok I understand, please try the following (Note: this just gives us more information it won't fix the problem)

1) boot up.
2) type startx
3) post the contents of the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file on this thread.

[mvharish]

"When I boot PCLinuxOS all I get is a black screen with a "login:"-prompt
Something probably went wrong loading the video driver for your video card. When it fails to
load your video driver you can probably still log in, only not using the graphical routines. At the
text-mode "login:", log in as the root user. Then type "XFdrake" - case-sensitive, without the
quotes - to set up your video card again. When you are done with XFdrake, start X by typing
either "kdm" (for the graphical login) or "startx" to start KDE as root-user. Don't forget to log out
the root when you start KDM!"
- from a HELP FAQ pdf file at the PCLinuxOS website.
Tried everything, but hasn't worked.
So I've reached the conclusion that there is no ATI Radeon graphics card driver with the PCLinux version I got. Suppose I found one on the net. Is there a way to get around it?

[mvharish]

"post the contents of the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file on this thread."
I'm sorry, but I haven't the slightest idea how to do this. How do I transfer it to windows?