wont boot up properly????

[explosion242]

Okay, I installed knoppix which becomes Debian. I did this on a older computer for a friend who is not computer savy. I had no problem when I gave the computer to him, but he calls me up and says that when he tries to start the computer, it shows all the information that it usually displays (hardware configuration) then shows the name of the computer and asks for a login. This is not the login that is usually displayed where it is asking for the administrator login and password. The login that he is talking about is all text, like the OS wont load correctly. If he types in the only login name and password that I assigned, he gets nothing. I hope I explained my problem well enough for anyone to understand, but I have no idea why this is happening and how to fix it without doing a new install. Could this be a hardware malfunction? Not sure how to proceedd.

Thanks in advance!

[fingers99]

What happens if he logs in as root (and maybe tries startx)?

[explosion242]

He called me on the phone last night and I asked him what he sees when he starts up the computer. I had named the computer linux-box and the username is brain. He says he gets a prompt that says something like linux-box brain$. Again, I wish I could more descriptive but I am going on purely what he is seeing. The only time is stops is when it is asking for a login which again appears in the text when it looks like it is scanning the computer for hardware. And what exactly is startx?