I am using SuSE 9.1. During install i chose 'auto login ' option. System auto logs me on and all seems good. So I set up a second username for myself...that seemed to go ok too, I can switch back and fourth from root user to my new user(guest), then I needed to reboot for whatever reason...Now instead of being auto logged in i must chose one of my two accounts, ok easy right? no.....I can type text on the username field.....But the password field will not accept any characters.... I was more that confused! I tried to take corrective action and inserted SuSE9.1 disk 1, at the rescue screen i was again prompted for root password, and again the password field would not accept my entries.

In a final and desprate attempt, I reinstalled SuSE, reinstall looks ok.....but this was only a few hours ago......so i havent touched anything since, linux is running, but now im back to one user and am scared that this might happen again when i try to set up my guest account......
oh ya.....any time im prompted for root password while in linux no problem, this unresponsive password field has only happened during login and the rescue attempt everything else looks good

any help for a lost and scared baby penguin?
sorry about the run on sentiences, and poor punctuation

this is a guess from what u said but I dont think it is possible to create a user guest and nobody they are allready used try another name

I would not use auto login if you want more than 1 user.I would not use auto login at all.

Probably the password field just isn't echoing anything back when you type in characters. This is perfectly normal. Even echoing back asterisks is dangerous, since then a shoulder-surfer can see how long your password is, and therefore many if not most *nix apps simply don't echo anything. Your keystrokes are being recorded, though.

thanks to everyone who replied to my questions over the last two days...this was the first time i had ever posted my own question....comprookie2000 left a few links to help me out....this was the best thing that could have happened...console tutorial from math.mcgill.ca has already been a big help thanks so much everyone.....i think ill be ok (for now)