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I performed a Mandriva installation which seemed to be successful - I even registered at Mandriva online as part of the install - until I entered my username and password. Then all I get is a black window on a black background. When I move the pointer it changes to a hand/finger or cursor, so I know there's a window there, but I have no idea what it is I'm clicking or typing. My hardware and ATI card are a few years old, but Mandriva seemed to cope with it just fine until I logged on. I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 now as my main Linux, with XP as dual-boot for work reasons. I just have strange issues with Mandriva and, before that, openSUSE. I'd like to at least make an attempt to recover Mandriva and try it out, but I haven't seen anything that applies to my problem online so far. So I'll ask the question here and a few other fora to see if there's anything to be done - if not, I'll try a VMWare Appliance, but it seems to a shame to waste an entire Mandriva install.

Thank you very much! I'll try it shortly - I was just considering wiping it for good. Later . . . Well, I probably still will. I got to the Control Panel and effects and switched them off, but still just a black window on a black background. This time I was able to click at random and get to a new black screen - but this one said [b]Mandriva Galaxy[/b] in the centre in white and had one Star icon in one corner. I clicked on that and disappeared into total darkness once more. [Modified by: BrendanMark on January 28, 2009 09:35 AM]

Maybe he needs to buy special glasses from mandriva to see what's on the screen.