I just installed Fedora. The install seemed to go flawlessly -- until I got to the graphical login screen. I could not log in under either "root" or my user name. In each instance, the password was not recognized. The part of the install where passwords are created seemed to go well.

This was a clean install. But ironically, I was loading over a Mandrake 10 install -- I did some updates on Mandrake & suddenly I could no longer log in to root administrator although I could still log into my user account.

Is there a way to get administrator privileges and change passwords via the rescue disk? I have used a number of linux distributions for a couple of years, but I am lost when I have to go to command prompt land.

You could boot into rescue mode as described in the Fedora FAQ . Then just do a "passwd root".

Yes, it worked to boot with the rescue disk and run passwd. (Did not have to include "root"). However, there was an oddity. My first effort result in a response something to the effect "unable to reset timeout" or something like that. So, the password would not reset. I then used chroot to the rescue disk "root" (which is explained in the rescue disk startup). I set the password and then I did chroot back to "/" and reset the password again -- this time it worked.