Aaaaargh! New Linux Mandrake 8 installation keeps crashing

[TheRealPeabody]

I am having problems with a workstation that resides on a WIN2K domain.
During installation of LM8, it detects the NIC, and I specify that I want to
use dhcp. I then specify a printer hanging off the server, and it prints the
test page correctly. So far so good.

However, as soon as I try to log on as a user, KDE gets as far as
"Initialising Peripherals", and it crashes into a heap (keyboard locked,
etc). I have to do a hard reset. Gnome gets a little further, in that it
tries to display the desktop before it dies completely.

I have spent three days uninstalling/reinstalling Linux-Mnadrake 8 to no avail. Is there a
log file somewhere that I can access from Linux-nfb that will give me a clue
as to what is causing the X Windows system to die. It isn't the peripherals
in the box, as WIN2K Pro works fine, and an identical standalone machine at
home works fine.

Also, during one of my earlier installations (I'm in week two of my Linux
experience), I found two configuration screens that I can't seem to find
anymore. One let's you specify the functions of the mouse buttons when you
click on the desktop, the other let you specify whether the screen
resolution is 72 or 100 dpi. Can someone tell me where I can find those
screens again. I have searched high and low.

Ta.

 

[unixmandan]

/var/log/X* is the xfree86log... (i forget the filename, but on my previous linux systems it was the only log file that started with X, hence the wildcard)
try /var/log/messages too

 

[mcveigh]

did you try booting to a command line instead of X, then starting X from the command line with "startx"?