This is going to sound so stupid... but i can't figure out how to "login as root" in mandrake 9.1.

the situation is that I want to burn a cd using Gcombust or Kdb or whatever their burn software is. I know how to get to a shell and do the "SU" thing and get root from there, but how do i get it in the KDE desktop so I can use the software? It's really frustrating me to no end. I tried to put myself in the root group, but that didn't work. I don't understand how all these groups and permissions work. can you guys help me get access to my own machine and set it up so this won't be a problem in the future? I can't figure this out on my own. thank you.

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You should really never just install as root. I would just suggest to 'su' when necessary or setup sudo for certain tasks.

I do believe those programs ask for you to login as root to run them the first time. You should just boot to runlevel 3, login as root, type startx, make or install what you need done and then from there you can login as a regular user to use those programs.

Or you could open a terminal window in X. type
xhost +;
su
enter password
then run the program.

When burning cds you can change the permission on the device of the cdburner so that anyone can access it.
ie if the burner is on /dev/sda
chmod o+rwx /dev/sda;
That should let anyuser burn cds.