Quote Originally Posted by bokaroseani
I then downloaded debian GNU/Linux 3.1 r0a "Sarge" and burnt the CD 1 (i386-binary) and installed it on a partition of my Thinkpad T20 laptop.

I can now boot in Debian and go to the command prompt but cannot go to GUI by typing "startx" at my normal login (not root login). I cannot startx even from root login.
When I installed Debian Sarge from CD 1, I ended up with a system that booted to the GUI login screen. I have to log in as a user (not root, root insn't allowed to log in here), with an account that I created during the install process. Do you have any insight on what choices you made during the install that may be giving you a different setup than I? Did you elect to install the normal desktop environment (if you installed a server environment, for example, maybe you didn't even get the GUI installed).

One nice thing about having the full CD #1 rather than installing "over the Internet" is that you have all you need right there, you can reinstall without having to pull everything across you internet connection again. I suspect that this is just a plague of riches; Debian gives you many different types of systems that you can install and you may not have chosen exactly what you want. I would suggest reinstalling, and taking careful notes about what choices you made so that if you do have a question you can post your choices and a Debian user may be able to tell you their suggestions.