X windows login screen won't start up - help please

[plangfel]

My RH 9 system was working fine until yesterday. After starting ghostview I got a few unexpected error messages havng something to do with dcop server already running (or there being a lock file for it); after that a long series of similar error messages in the terminal window I started ghostview from, plus a lot of core.xxx files in my home directory. Upon rebooting the kernel started up alright, but the graphics login screen doesn't come up; instead I get a text "window" (looks a bit like a bios configuration screen) with a ^_z message and <Yes>, <No> options. Clicking on Yes will make the screen go blank and return to the same thing after a bit of time; clicking on No reboots again. I can ssh in remotely, the system is running, there's enough disk space (about 9 GB left) and I have deleted everything in the /tmp directory. Can anyone help me solve this - I'm clueless! TIA!

[RomKnight]

since you can ssh to it is ther anything on /var/log/messages or log files for your X server?

[plangfel]

There aren't any messages that I can directly relate to the crash. These two come closest:

Oct 24 19:06:19 tachyon gdm(pam_unix)[4023]: session closed for user plangfelder
Oct 24 19:06:22 tachyon gdm[4023]: gdm_slave_xioerror_handler: Fatal X error - Restarting :0

Thanks,

Peter

[plangfel]

I don't know if this helps... but the last two messages written into the messages file on restart are

Oct 24 19:09:35 tachyon gdm[4579]: Display :0 is busy. There is another X server running already.
Oct 24 19:10:10 tachyon gdm[4579]: gdm_server_start: Display :0 busy.  Trying another display number.

Peter

[RomKnight]

Do you have a /tmp/.X0-lock file?

Maybe X server crashed and couldn't delete the lock file.

[crocodile1s]

I dont know if this will help

while on that screen (with yes/no) try Alt + F1 ir Alt + F2 to get a login request , then login as root then type init 2.

it is supposed to bring u with a text mode login window again..login as root then type shutdown -r now. ("now" is part of the command so type it).