Hi everyone, yesterday, I downloaded the linux distribution, Fedora Core 5 Release, and installed it on my old computer (via CD-RWs), and everything was going great, the package installation had finished. Then, I get to that black screen which asks you numerous questions, and followed by that a login prompt. This is where my problems begin, because it asks you for a username, and I'm not sure what mine is. I'm pretty sure I just defaulted it to "localhost" earlier in the installation program. I'm pretty sure I know what my root password is, as I did write it down, but even when I press [enter] after I've typed the username, it won't let me type anything in the password box.

Is there any way I can find out my username to verify, just in case it's wrong? Is there anything I'm doing wrong? I am completely new to linux, by the way.

Thanks in advance for your help,
deltoids.

Firstly, are you using the username "root" to try and log in as root? Not sure if you meant you were trying to log in as "localhost". Secondly, when you type your password in, it's normal that nothing is shown . Go ahead and type your password (and remember that passwords are case sensitive) and hit enter.

Thank you so much for your help, first of all. I really appreciate it.

Well, now I've tried both. The first time, I did just type in "localhost" for the username, and went ahead and typed in my password, but it was incorrect.

Then, you gave me the idea to type in "root" as the username, and I did, with my password, and I didn't get an error message this time, but I did get something that read, "[root@localhost ~]#"

I'm probably just using the incorrect username, I'm pretty sure that it was "localhost" though. Any suggestions?

Is it normal that the little green underscore in the password field doesn't move when you type something in there?

Heh, is there anyway I can skip this screen prompt for the login and just get to the desktop?

The "[root@localhost ~]#" is actually right - you have logged in to your machine. Try the command "startx" here to see if you can't get a desktop up. If you can, you can then set up kdm or gdm to get you logged in graphically.

EDIT:
Actually before you "startx", do "adduser" to add a non-root user. This will walk you through setting up a non-root user with which you can then log in instead of root.

Yes, it's normal that the cursor doesn't move when you type your password . You do not want to start a GUI straight away now. It's better to create a normal user account (i.e. one without all of root's power) first and then start your GUI using that. Only use root when you have to.

You should be able to add a user account with "useradd -m username", without quotes and replacing "username" with the name you want your user to have. After this, run "passwd username" to set the password for that account. Type "exit" to log out, log back in with your new account and then try "startx" as mentioned above.

to avoid confusion: useradd and adduser are both correct commands. adduser tends to be a bit more userfriendly and prompts you for most of the information you would need to set up a user account. useradd just adds that user (doesn't add the user to any groups etc.)

Yep, but I've read somewhere that they're actually the same command on Fedora.

yup, redhat has useradd and adduser as the same command.

Thank you all so much, all of your suggestions worked and were greatly appreciated!