Laptops :: N00b with a Tecra 8200

Ok first off, hi all, this is my first post and like so many others I have a opening question for you, but common, thats what forums are for eh? ;)

Ok so I am a Linux n00b, but really want to learn this oblivious system, I've been given a Tecra 8200 from a friend who now has an M2, I am a COMPLETE LINUX NOVICE and I'm a windows technician (plz don't h8 me!), but I was doing some browsing and came accross a 50Mb install of Linux and the usb pen drive idea blew me away so I thought yeh thats a good starting point for me, a stream lined linux, so now my problem.

Ahem, I boot the DSL cd and I press enter so it does all the dizzle it'self, but after it says

xauth:   creating new authority file /home/dsl/.Xauthority

I just get a flashing prompt and nothing else, I'm so bad @ all this I aint sure if that is what supposed to happen

I've tried a few commands, but it just jumps a line down after pressing enter and thats it, it does however recognise the ctrl,alt and del command and does its stuff, tells you to take cd out etc and press enter.

I tried usin the F2 setup with the same options as a member had on here, but I choose my options etc and it just does the same thing @ the end.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to stop this or tell me what to do from here if this is correct?

Thanks

Jabb3r

Seemed to have done the trick thanks, altho now it's windowed on my laptop, nice big black border around it, maybe I should trybooting fb1024x768 now?

Anyway right, now where to go from here, hmmmmm