Well, I recently came across linux yesterday and i have it on my computer. I ran backtrack 2 yesterday and it was working fine and i had all my programs and the linux running any everything. Now, i know i must be doing something very simple or wrong, but when i try to log in, i type root right? but whne i type in root the login screen just keeps re appearing again and again over and over everytime i do it and i dont know how to get in. Quick help would be great. Thanks!

Depending on the distribution, root logins may get disabled either on install or on post-installation. Which distribution are you using?

M.

well, this is what i know. My friend wanted me to download linux, and he gave me a specific link that is an iso file which is this.http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/b...k/bt2final.iso I am running it on my windows and it opens up fine and everything but i cant seem to login. When ever i type in root the same screen pops up again.

Okay, this is BackTrack - not what I'd call a general purpose distribution I'd suggest you read the documentation provided on the website. I guess since it's a security focussed distribution, they'll either have set a root password you can find on their site, or they'll have disabled the root account for good.

M.

Hm... seems to be a security tools live-cd. Even live distros sometimes request a root password. The only way to know is through their project site.
Be very careful. Once you are root you can do permanent damage do your harddrive. I would suggest you use 'sudo' whenever you need root privileges.

I've tinkered with Backtrack 2 a little bit. I know for that the log in is "root" and the password is simply "toor" by default. Could you have done something to change the password?

oscar: I linked to them...

ericksonboy7: I consider oscar's suggestion sensible (the usage of sudo has its advantages over being root security-wise; OTOH, you have to be more protective about your own user password - but that you should be anyway...).

timmit: That's SLAX's default

M.

It is also Backtrack 2's default. I had it on my machine for a while until I realized that any tinkering I wanted to do could just be done from a LiveCD.

Well, as you said the login in is root and the password is toor, and it worked fine last night. I didnt tinker anything or change anything at all on it, just checked out some features this being the first type of linux i have ever used and i am totally lost on what half of you guys are telling me, and if i tried to use this "sudo", i most likely wouldnt even be able to undetstand what it is. Eh =/

ericksonboy7: Don't be dismayed! It's the same for everybody (well, not the most proficient geeks maybe, but a lot of us aren't). But with BackTrack, you're definitely using a tool not meant to be used by newbies. I'd rather suggest something less specialised - everything from Ubuntu/Fedora/Mandriva or even Debian/Slackware, SLAX proper or something nifty like Puppy or DSL - everyone of those makes for a smoother start than BackTrack (even if that latter is a great toolbox if that's what you need!), even DSL which is already pretty geeky. I don't know what went wrong (maybe there are hints somewhere on the BackTrack site, but given the fact that you only played with it for a day, switching/reinstalling shouldn't be too bad...

"sudo" is a command to do things a root - you simply enter it on a command line before a command you would normally have to be root to use, e.g.
to look at the actual network configuration (you can do a lot more with that command). But "sudo" needs to be installed and enabled - I didn't dig around in BackTrack's documentation to find out if that's the case...