[NTLUG:Discuss] help request

[Fred]

Well, it finally happened. My dear momma's computer bit the dust.
Partially, that is and I am embarassed that I cannot figure out what
is wrong. I have a few ideas, but...

X won't start on boot. The OS (Mandrake 9.0) says it is at init 5
(multiuser, X). I cannot glean much from the log files. The system
had been working for 2 years and suddenly quit (A big clue). Console
operations work ok. 

Error messages are few, but there is one about no mouse (sorry, it
was a few days ago and I don't remember the exact wording) and
another about file not found when attempting a startx command. 

What would cause this kind of failure? A scribbled disk? Maybe from a
power hit? She has no battery backup and she leaves the system on all
the time.

Her operations are all web based (email, banking, etc) which drove
the decision to install Linux instead of Windows. I have not heard of
any virii or other problems affecting Linux in the wild, especially
not something like this.

I have the original cd's around here somewhere, so I could reload the
os, but I worry about what will get wiped out in the process. /home
should be ok. I could take the drive and add it to my system and
backup everything to data dvd first. I could also bring the system up
to date with SuSE9.3 but I doubt that will happen unless the time it
takes to fix the problem is more that it takes to replace it.

I welcome all thoughts and suggestions.

Fred

  




		
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