B.4. Problems After Installation

B.4.1. Unable to IPL from *NWSSTG

If you are experiencing difficulties when trying to IPL from *NWSSTG, you may not have created a PReP Boot partition set as active.

B.4.2. Booting into a Graphical Environment

This information does not apply to users of iSeries systems.

If you have installed the X Window System but are not seeing a graphical desktop environment once you log into your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, you can start the X Window System graphical interface using the command startx.

Once you enter this command and press [Enter], the graphical desktop environment is displayed.

Note, however, that this is just a one-time fix and does not change the log in process for future log ins.

To set up your system so that you can log in at a graphical login screen, you must edit one file, /etc/inittab, by changing just one number in the runlevel section. When you are finished, reboot the computer. The next time you log in, you are presented with a graphical login prompt.

Open a shell prompt. If you are in your user account, become root by typing the su command.

Now, type gedit /etc/inittab to edit the file with gedit. The file /etc/inittab opens. Within the first screen, a section of the file which looks like the following appears:

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
#   0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#   1 - Single user mode
#   2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
#   3 - Full multiuser mode
#   4 - unused
#   5 - X11
#   6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 
id:3:initdefault:

To change from a console to a graphical login, you should change the number in the line id:3:initdefault: from a 3 to a 5.

	Warning
	Change only the number of the default runlevel from 3 to 5.

Your changed line should look like the following:

      	id:5:initdefault:
      
    

When you are satisfied with your change, save and exit the file using the [Ctrl]-[Q] keys. A window appears and asks if you would like to save the changes. Click Save.

The next time you log in after rebooting your system, you are presented with a graphical login prompt.

B.4.3. Problems with the X Window System (GUI)

If you are having trouble getting X (the X Window System) to start, you may not have installed it during your installation.

If you want X, you can either install the packages from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD-ROMs or perform an upgrade.

If you elect to upgrade, select the X Window System packages, and choose GNOME, KDE, or both, during the upgrade package selection process.

B.4.4. Problems with the X Server Crashing and Non-Root Users

If you are having trouble with the X server crashing when anyone other than root logs in, you may have a full file system (or, a lack of available hard drive space).

To verify that this is the problem you are experiencing, run the following command:

     
df -h

The df command should help you diagnose which partition is full. For additional information about df and an explanation of the options available (such as the -h option used in this example), refer to the df man page by typing man df at a shell prompt.

A key indicator is 100% full or a percentage above 90% or 95% on a partition. The /home/ and /tmp/ partitions can sometimes fill up quickly with user files. You can make some room on that partition by removing old files. After you free up some disk space, try running X as the user that was unsuccessful before.

B.4.5. Problems When You Try to Log In

If you did not create a user account in the Setup Agent, log in as root and use the password you assigned to root.

If you cannot remember your root password, boot your system as linux single.

Once you have booted into single user mode and have access to the # prompt, you must type passwd root, which allows you to enter a new password for root. At this point you can type shutdown -r now to reboot the system with the new root password.

If you cannot remember your user account password, you must become root. To become root, type su - and enter your root password when prompted. Then, type passwd <username>. This allows you to enter a new password for the specified user account.

If the graphical login screen does not appear, check your hardware for compatibility issues. The Hardware Compatibility List can be found at:

http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/

B.4.6. Your Printer Does Not Work

If you are not sure how to set up your printer or are having trouble getting it to work properly, try using the Printer Configuration Tool.

Type the system-config-printer command at a shell prompt to launch the Printer Configuration Tool. If you are not root, it prompts you for the root password to continue.

B.4.7. Apache-based httpd service/Sendmail Hangs During Startup

If you are having trouble with the Apache-based httpd service or Sendmail hanging at startup, make sure the following line is in the /etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1  localhost.localdomain  localhost