only one bash prompt?

[Harry Putnam]

"charles f. zeitler" <cfzeitler at yahoo.com> writes:

> when i try to open
> a second terminal,
> or a second term tab,
> the bash prompt
> never appears.

A litte more info is needed here for anyone to be helpful.
Which OS?
Is it up to date?
Are you running bash?
Which version of bash?

This happens in X or in console mode or both?
If in X which desktop and terminal

output of `echo $TERM'
          `echo $SHELL
           env 

Contents of .bashrc and .bash_profile

Fill that stuff in and someone can help you.  

In the future bear in mind that potential helper need enough info to
make intelligent guesses.