I have a 500Mhz Compaq, a 1997 bios, 40gig hard drive, 256megs ram,
What works? I have a desktop, I can browse the Internet, I can use the IM Gaimy, I can browse my network,I can copy files from windows clients to the Home directory, I can get update2 updates, I can use the CDrom to play music (after ignoring error messages) I have downloaded an updated YUM.conf from Fedorafaq.

What I dont know or seem to be able to do is.
become root or obtain root status
I cannot install RPM's
I cannot follow and complete any of the suggesions to update APT,YUM or anythingelse.
I am unable to perform anything, it always says I need to do something else and then I am unable to do that either.

Talk about frustrations, this far exceeds anything ive experienced with Windows or any other software.

My suspicions are that the error message i got regarding my partition not being aligned properly has something to do with all this and that Linux does not like my 40gig HD being installed on this compaq model 5835 that has its BIOS installed on the HD, I suspect that it needs to be updated and am pursuing a softpaq that will update it, however I am at the point now that I think I need to reinstall Windows and then these softpaqs to get it to accept the 40gig drive... what I dont understand is why i didnt have all this trouble when I had Win98 on it, I installed the 40gig as a replacement to the original 10 gig that crashed. After I get win98 reestablished Im thinking that I would be ahead by using Partition Magic to setup the partions for this Fedora2 before i reinstall it.
well,,I have covered a lot of grief and my on NEWBIE thoughts, can any of you experts advise me ? am I going in a straight line or in circles ..??

Did you create a root pasword during installation .
If so open a terminal type in su press enter type root password press enter. You should now be root. I also got the partition not aligned message but all still ok.
Regards
Sharkee

I also have 'not properly aligned partition' or something but is also OK. So, I conclude linux does not quite like partition magic.

To avoid this, use 'parted' in linux to do partitioning (which windows likes it), but with this case we have to instlall linux first then windows. This is appropriate if we have the CD to install windows. Otherwise, ignoring that annoying partition message doesn't seem to harm (am I right?).

I to had the same message at install. I ignored and have no problems. System is dual boot with XP

Regards
Sharkee