startx: no can do

I cant seem to do startx on my Mandrake 9.2 system anymore. it used to be fine and after a reboot i login as root as usual in the text based thing type startx and it loaded and everything. now when i type it i get the background for my desktop and then it does back to the text and lists warnings and says:
"Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server"

"Waiting for X server to shut down"

[root@Linux bin]# back to command

what happened? i tried to run xf86config and it didnt help what else can it be

thanks

What have you done to the system as of late? Any updates? Anything that would alter the x-config? Migrate to Xorg?
Something had to have changed.

nothing that i am aware of i usually leave it on to host my site and MYSQL DB i only upload to it sometimes, other than that it sits there

You updated nothing? You installed nothing? No applications, no software, no kernel updates?

What does the error message say just prior to what you typed?

How about error logs?
Mine are usually in /var/log, and resemble XFree86.(N).log (where (N) is some numerical value).

Post that perhaps? Redirect the output from the startx to a file?

i cant pass the output to a file if i type anything after startx its loads a GUI with buttons at the bottom that bring up the menus but none of the things in the menu will launch

Uhm, I thought you said it goes back to the command line?


So the gui does come up, but the apps do not work?
That is an entirely different animal.

it isnt the normal GUI its some sort of graphically deficient form of it. just gray buttons with text no icons i have never even seen this GUI i always used Gnome

Sigh. That is the X framework.

The problem most likely exists with your WM (Gnome, in this case).
Either your .xinitrc is fragged, or Gnome itself has problems.

Are you absolutely certain you did NOTHING to this box? NO upgrades, no patches, no anything?

he lies..

DO NOT use the root user as your normal, everyday user! This has severe implications throughout the system, as anything root does may impact the system in a way that is not expected. It is very possible that while root you've changed something, maybe inadvertently, that broke something else on your system. UNIX-based systems can be very touchy about thier configurations.

They also don't just change themselves, you've done something to the system, likely with your window manager configuration. This does not sound like an issue with your XF86 setup (RH9 used XFree instead of X.org, right?), but rather an issue with your window manager.

Also, the text based "thing" is the console.