You probably had it start out in X windows by default. You are actually at a graphical screen which has yet to be accessible. The good news is that you can do something about it. Hit control-alt-F2 to switch to the second virtual console. You should be able to read the login prompt here. So, log in as root and edit the /etc/inittab file and change the default runlevel to 3. The line would look something like "id:3:initdefault:" I think it defaults to 4 in Redhat for X windows. run level 3 is text-only. Or, you can just leave it alone and always use the virtual consoles 2 through 6, but it takes longer to go into X than text mode, and if you can't use it, there is really no point loading it. If you decide to reinstall redhat at some time, pay attention to the question when it asks you if you want to start in graphical mode. Yes is the default, so you need to change it to no or fix it after the fact.
