On installing openSUSE 11.1 I found that it would drop into the CL and not the Graphical Interface. After several tries I discovered that the problem seemed to be associated with my Wacom Graphire Tablet which was plugged into a usb port when installing. However, when I unplugged it and re-installed the operating system everything was fine.
I have no idea why this should be but thought it might be useful to others to know about this problem.