Hi. I am a first time user with Linux. I set up a PC and installed Slackware 10.1 on it. After I go through LILO, which is on a floppy disk, it shows me "darkstar login:" what do I type in. I didn't create a password in setup because I dont care about security. I dont have it hooked up to the internet so I figured I didn't need a password. I tried typing in "root" as it told me to do in the install, but all it gives me is the date and time, the version, it says I have mail, and it gives me a fortune. How do I get into the GUI? please help.

You have to add an user to run X.
Set your password first with typing :
And add your user with :
perss enter to accept the default for the most of the
options, do not forget to set a password for this user
too.
After that type exit and login with your username
and password, type xwmconfig, choose a window
manager and type startx

Hello and welcome to linux!

You do need a root password, I don't believe it will allow you to not set one.
You may have set the password to "root", that is a VERY VERY bad idea. You may not care about security, but atleast secure your box enough so that it won't become another node for DoS, which affects everyone else.

If it says the login, fortune, etc, that means you've logged in. You're at the command prompt as root.
Root should only be use for system adminitrator, you should create a normal login for your day to day operations.

xorgconfig will walk you through setting up the GUI, but you may need to edit the config beyond that.
www.slackbook.org is a great resource, if you're using slack and thereby using linux, it hopefully means you want to learn. In that case you will have to read too. =)

That book walks you through getting online (if it doesn't work already), how to setup X (the GUI), etc.
GL,
-Jason

What is "DoS"?

maybe , if you just type " startx " , X will start.
but you best add a user first.

then logout of " root " and login as your user.

if x won't start, you can run xorgconfig or X -configure.

Dos=? do you mean msdos ?

egag

I was just saying security not only benefits you, it benefits other.

You may not care about securty, but it is foolish to not have a root password and/or run everything as root.
DoS = Denial of Service, thousands of home PCs are infiltrated and used as nodes in attacking other pc/servers.
This not only affects you, but others, DDoS attacks can even slow down the internet for everyone.

This is why it is good to take certain security precautions, you don't necessarily have to run your pc behind 3 hardware firewalls and activly encrypt all data, it's just good to secure a system enough that a common thief walking by could gain full access.
-Jason

hi there,
just to attach some more info at the "username17" answer ..
regards
slackie1000

I don't think anyone will be running any DoS attacks from his comp.. unless they know some means of hacking an unconnected comp.. now that is 1337 :P

that was my point, but I figured it out, until the HDD I was using crashed. I just dug out an old 6 GB and am formatting it as I type. I did set up a password, though

When I started using Linux (Zipslack 3.9), I too ran as root most of the time.
After a while, the system started to do all sorts of strange things, due,
most likely, to data corruption. After a while, I had a buggy mess, much
like a MSWindows OS after alot of promiscuous downloading and
hard gaming.

So, even if you don't want to go on the 'net, you will find that your system
is alot more stable if you add a user, and use root only when you have to.

try entering startx.
tip: first u must set a non-SU-user...