Busted Debian install?

Hi all,

First I am a linux fan. Second I have done a lot of installs
with other distro's but have just started to install Debian on
a lot more machines. So here's the story.

I have a SuperMicro P6DBE with two P2-400's and 512M
of ram and a pci ati video card and one 8.6G ide hd. I
downloaded the 2 set dvd install and put the first one in and
booted the machine. Went through the "expert26" and
picked desktop and several other options. When it finally
finishes the install and reboots the last thing I see starting is
gdm and the screen goes blank. That's it.
<ctl> <alt> <bksp> doesn't work
<ctl> <alt> <f1> doesn't work
<ctl> <alt> <f2> doesn't work
nothing works, only choice is to reboot and it does the same
thing over and over.
Debian verion is Sarge 3.1r0 i386. I understand there is a newer
one out 3.1r3, wonder if it would do anything differently.
I guess I could install without the desktop and add it later.
But any other ideas?
I want it to boot to command mode and go into a gui when I
want to not when the computer want to.
I have heard that if I can get to a grub prompt, I can make it
boot to single user mode. If that's true what is the exact
command I would need to type in at the grub prompt?

thanks,
charles.....



.

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