I ran the YOU (Yast Online Update) yesterday. A note said that IF I had Lilo, I should re-run it before shuting down. My machine apparently boots with GRUB, so I did not run lilo and just shut down.

Now it only boots to a shell prompt, not to the suse 10.0 gui.

my grub.conf file seems shorter than the ones I find in my linux books. The file currently contains... (I may do a typo as I am re-typing from the messed up machine to this one)
+++++++++++
root (dh0,0)
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /grub/stage1 d (hd0,0) /grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,0)/grub/menu.lst
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /grub/stage1 d (hd1,0) /grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,0)/grub/menu.lst
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /grub/stage1 d (hd0) /grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0)/grub/menu.lst
quit
++++++++++

shouldn't there be more here?

does grub seem like my problem here, or am I barking up the wrong tree!

do you have a /boot/grub/menu.lst?

wrong tree there fido ... grub.conf is what is installed, not how grub is used. but i dont think this is your problem.

the grub file that configures your boot options is /boot/grub/menu.lst

but this determines which kernel and kernel time options to boot with not what to do once your booted.
at the console first try:
init 5
if everything is working it should take you to your gui login screen
so if that works check /etc/inittab

look for this line:
# The default runlevel is defined here
id:3:initdefault:

to boot to gui mode it should say
id:5:initdefault:

I got hold of my hardware manufacturer in the mean time. apparently when you install a new kernal you need to re load the nvidia binary driver.

It does not make any sense to me, but after the day I had (thought I might have lost a lot of work!!!) I don't care. It works, I'm back up, and I won't be upgrading the Kernel again. Well, never say never but...

you should check in the nvidia install there is a /lib/modules/external directory where you can install 3rd party modules and they wont get deleted/not move forward into the new kernel. you can avoid this problem if you install them there.

no, you should update your kernel when ever YOU offers it because it is a security fix. the reinstallation of the nvidia driver is just a given, anything that was built against the old kernel will need to be rebuilt and installed.

Oh re-reading your post I should have picked that up. Yeah ujst re-running the nvidia driver install will fix everything.