First Time Installing Linux (Suse 9.1)

[rclendenon]

This is the first time I have tried to install Suse 9.1 Linux (or any Linux distrubution). Everything appears to have gone well. However, after the final reboot I got a login prompt. I logged in using the username and password I set up during installation and received 'username@linux' comand prompt. The problem is I do not know what to do now. Can someone please give me some direction?

Thanks in advance.

[mrBen]

Did you configuring X (the windowing environment) as part of the install? Typing startx should start it up.

[rclendenon]

mrBen,

Thanks for the reply. It appears that the install was not as successful as it appeared. I basically accepted the default settings. However, when I type 'startx' at the command prompt I get a 'No such file or directory' error. When I get the time I will try to reinstall and pay a little closer attention to the options.

Thanks again for your help.

[Daedrus]

With SuSE 9.1 you might just want to choose the default with KDE install. This will give you the graphical login and a window manager to start with.

[x]

It's been some time since I installed SuSe, so I'm not 100% sure about this.
But I think when you install, X is not configured by default.
Under the installation procedure you get a screen where your hardware is listed, like Soundcard, printer, video card etc.
If you don't configure graphics here, you don't have X11 installed and/or configured.

However, you can fix it by running yast from the command prompt (as root, I believe.)

[Bowtie]

Once you log in, type the following command:

ls /opt/

If there isn't a listing for kde in the directory, you will have to either reinstall Suse and choose a different install package (Default w/ Office should suffice), or if you log in as root, type in yast at the command prompt and it will bring you to Suse's configuration tool. You should then be able to go to the "Software" section and choose "Install and Remove Software". Once there you should be able to select KDE (Yast will warn you of the dependencies, packages that are needed to support KDE in otherwords, just agree to them) and install.

Simply put, if you feel froggy, use Yast to get your X and your desktop of choice installed. If not, reinstall Suse and choose a different install option. Good luck and have fun with it!!!

[saikee]

My Suse was obtained as a commercial product and X-Windows was installed as a default. Using it I can understand Yast as the basic configurator.

Is Yast the common tool to do such a job in Linux. I have several distros that only install in command-line mode and I would see if I can get the X-Windows up.

[Bowtie]

saikee, Yast (Yast2, Sax) is exclusive to Suse. Red Hat and Mandrake have their own versions of a "control panel". I'm not familiar with most of the others but I would imagine that most of them have some sort of graphical tool box. I remember Red Hat used to use linuxconf and control-panel a couple of years ago. I'm starting to work with Slackware now so I need to find what the cli commands are to get into everything......LOL I've been spoiled by Suse, however, I can log in and change settings via gui no matter where I'm at.