I am a newbie to this Linux thing. In the past I have used Win95, which I feel comfortable with, but now I'am after a better, more stable OS. For this I chose Mandrake 6.0. My problem is installation, which I have spent the past 4-5 days trying to accomplish, before I explain my problem I will give you a brief description of my system, just in case it is something obvious that's wrong: Cyrix 6x86 P150+ 32 Mb RAM 2.1 Gb HD (master) 420 Mb HD (slave) - with old Windows files on (*.doc, .....etc.....) Acer Acerview 33D monitor (14") Atapi 4x CD-ROM Soundblaster 16 sound card 56K clone modem Scanner Interface card HP Deskjet 690C Diamond 3D 200 PRO graphics card .... I think that's about it.... Anyway, I install virtually all of Mandrake, with a disk partition of 64Mb swap and the rest native (/) on the 2.1Gb. The 420Mb is called "/dos" with all my docs and stuff on. I then configure the rest of the OS - printer, mouse, graphics, etc.... After about an hour of installation, the time has come to reboot the machine, so I take out all boot media....... and log in as root. This is when the problem arises. Sometimes all I get is a nice blue screen with my cross in the middle - this doesn't go anywhere, so I have to reset, which completey screws it all up.... and back to re-installing. Or, I can get in, change permissions for all to shutdown the machine, logout and then it crashes, so I have to reset, screwing it up again........ and back to re-installing. Or, finally, I can get in and shutdown and then it dies on me............... What to do? It's getting a tad bring now, unfortunately!! If I have to reset, and lucky enough to get back in, then I'm offered a different "log-in Window", which doesn't allow me as many options, and I can never get the original back!! Could it be a problem with my BIOS? - I'm pretty sure it's set properly. Hardware problem? Installation problem? Should I not boot into X? A problem with me?!?!?! I think I've tried everything now. Cheers, Andy -- Andrew Weller M.Sc. Computing in Earth Sciences Dept. of Earth Sciences Keele University Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel. (+44) 01782 246883
