Ok here goes and sorry about the length but more info rather than less is usually better, I just did a clean install of Mandrake 8.2. The configuration is this:

P200, 64MB, Matrox Mystique 4MB on-board, HD0 8.2GB, HD1 1.5GB, Samsung 17Gsli, like to run this machine at 800 x 600 75Hz.

I have a very basic Win 98 FE on the large drive,HD0, (I use it for testing odds & ends) using 3GB and installed the Linux using the remaining 5GB. HD1 is running Win NT.

This machine is networked to my main machine running Win98 SE.

In order to boot these 3 OS's properly I use XOSL since I need to hide the NT "C" drive from the Win98 "C" drive which I can do with the hide feature and swap drive feature in XOSL. The Linux boot loader works fine and I have the XOSL pointed there for Linux so I get a standard Linux startup GUI from XOSL.

This by the way is my first Linux install and I'm just setting out to learn it.

Here's the problem. The OS boots through the long string of checks with all OK's. It gets to the Desktop GUI (I chose KDE) and it starts to load ICONS and startup apps. At this point my keyboard (standard US) locks up and though my mouse (standard 2 button serial) can move in any direction no click is accepted by the system.

In short I'm stuck with a reset switch warm boot. I tried using the boot disk I made and "upgrading" the installation but that produced 1 almost where I was able to click on and begin to open the tools folder (maybe the wrong term in Linux, I'm new, LOL) but as the folder painted, everything froze again.

I would suspect a graphics problem but Linux recognized and installed everything correctly with one exception, it wants to use enhanced SVGA instead of my Samsung, don't know why, and it wants to use 1024 x 768 instead of 800 x 600, again I don't know why.

1st, suggestions anyone?

2nd, is there any way to get to a configuration setup screen BEFORE the gui opens or without having to use expert during a complete upgrade process which I did 4 times last night? That's a really long process.

Thanks

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"Don't know where I'm goin but there's no sense being late"