Serious and aggravating red hat 7.1 problem

[unrealman]

ok i'm putting red hat 7.1 on a maching for a freind and this stupid thing won't work. i can't get it to go into gnome or KDE or anything, and that'z if i can log in because the screen blinks on the turns off for a second or so then blinks on relly fast again...it'll do that a bunch of times then stay on a lil but it'z not enough to type the root and the password. if i oput another video card in it it'll work fine until i reboot it with the same card in it.....first boot on a card worx....this is really aggravating. and also when i try to run xfree86 it says there is a fatal error and can't find the screen....i don't get it????? i need all the help i can get on this. thanx i really appreciate it.

oh and i also have gnome set as the primary shell to boot into and it just goes to bash...am i supposed to type something there to start it?

[PIETRO]

What video card are you using?

[hyborn]

I had the same problem when I installed Red Hat 7.1, install went fine, but when it actually came to log in, the screen would blink not allowing me to log in.

It appeared that it didnt like my Voodoo 3, and would only boot using the onboard chipset.

Removing the card corrected the problem.

I'm sure that this is your problem.

Try removing the card and using the onboard AGP. If you still have problems, at least you know that it isnt the card.

Linux is sitting in a back cupboard at the moment, as I resorted back to Win98SE (I really wanted to get away from M$ software) as Linux was just (after learning the basics) such a big jump to what I was used to.

There is also a lack of software etc for Linux, but I am definately planning on running it on a spare PC when I get one.

Anyhoo, back to your query, it sounds like a video card conflict, try it without the card, log in, get some drivers, then try and reinstall it.

[Orly]

I was using Red Hat 7.1 for school and tried to install it at home but my video card gave me issues--even though the card was suppose to be supported. I recently installed RedHat 7.2 and it works like a champ.

[fab.ount]

Did you configure everything with xf86config (or a derived tool, like SaX2 under SuSE - Don't know RedHat...). If you don't, the programm will maybe use the bad X server and you will only have blinking screens!

[hyborn]

Red Hat does have an X config program, I advise anyone who is having problems, to try

www.linuxnewbie.com
www.linuxjunior.com

They have great HOWTO faq's that were a great help, also <b>Read the Manual !</b> Unlike Windows (which I have never read a helpfile to install) you really do need to.