Suse 10.2 Boot disaster

[toastrack]

Here I am back on the old W... PC. My nice fairly new linux 10.2 PC has come off the rails, after working just fine.
A few days ago I think I inadvertently clicked on something like Software Update in Yast, and it went int a long proces, eventually continuing AOK. But at the next boot I only get a screen full of text. At the bottom it asks for my login name (I had set it for auto-login), which it accepts, then the password also is accepted, and I'm left with the command prompt. I can get no further, probably because I'm not too familiar with the commands.
I want to get back to the automatic appearing of the GUI screen (I thiunk it was Gnome ?) plus my icons and all the other stuff.
If it helps, I find I can access all the files as before via my router using to old W98 PC, but that's too slow to be any use, and I need the Linux stuff anyway.
Meanwhile I'm one very sad, confused and depressed bunny.

[devils casper]

Hi toastrack,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

execute 'startx' at command prompt. post error message if any.
post the contents of /etc/inittab file.

less /etc/inittab

Casper

[toastrack]

Hi toastrack,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

execute 'startx' at command prompt. post error message if any.
post the contents of /etc/inittab file.

less /etc/inittab

Casper

Thanks for the advice so far. The startx command brought back the graphic interface as was AOK, and everything worked as before. I guess I'll need to do some stuff in Yast now to get it right, but I'll await your advice.

Attempts to copy the inittab file to you keep producing the legend that I'm using too many smilies - can't understand that.

[devils casper]

smilies... well ! a lot of key combinations turns into smilies and one can't post more than four smilies. e.g. 8 ) -- , : D -- and : p -- etc.

look for line

id:x:initdefault:

in /etc/inittab file. if x is 3, replace it with 5.

in case, x is 5 already, post the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

[toastrack]

Hi Casper,

I cannot now get root privilege on the system, so I cannot edit the file!

[devils casper]

do you forget 'root' password or what?

[toastrack]

No. I cannot find a way to run in root, or to get write permission for the file ///etc/inittab.
I can open the file in editors, but of course then any changes are prohibited.

[devils casper]

are you able to login as root? enter username 'root' and enter root's password.
or log in as normal user and exeucte this

su
nano /etc/inittab

'su' provides 'root' privileges.

[toastrack]

Hi Casper,

Thanks. I followed this advice. The command su worked fine, I entered the password and got root OK. But then the PC didn't recognise the command nano for some reason, so got no further.

BTW, earlier on I tried the command (in root) edit /etc/inittab, but that just brought up a new blank file to edit so was no good.

Under whatever has happened to the system, I also find that the option "leave" at the bottom left side now only gives me two options. The options to reboot and to reboot as root have gone - which doesn't help me any.

[devils casper]

are you typing command correctly? check the output of this command

ls /etc/initt*

does it list 'inittab' file in output?

i think nano is not installed in your machine. edit that using vi editor.

vi /etc/inittab

if your logged in GUI as root, double click on inittab file in /etc folder OR open it in kate or gedit.

Under whatever has happened to the system, I also find that the option "leave" at the bottom left side now only gives me two options. The options to reboot and to reboot as root have gone - which doesn't help me any.

Suse is booting up in command line mode, so other option will not available. if you set GUI as default, all options will appear as earlier.