Users: When Mandrake starts it asks which user to log in. THat's great as it saves typing, but root isn't listed. How can I log on as root in X? I don't like having my rooting around restricted to the command prompt (even though that's where I do it most of the time)

Window managers:
I really like KDE. Looks semi windows-like, has that little dotted line that appears when you click somehing so you know a program is starting and don't click it again, good apps, passable game selection, etc.

However, when I use redhat or mandrake (been experimening with several distros lately) and I go to the "start menu" (What's it called under Linux?) and log off, all it asks me is "End session for korff" and 2 choices, log off and cancel. In other distros, using the same version of KDE, I get log off, halt, and reboot as options. As logging off restarts X before giving you options to halt or reboot, I'd like to know how to get those options available under rh and mdk.

Bootloaders:
I have learned that Windows XP, while still quite flaky in comparison to Linux, is a huge improvement over Win98. Having experience with Windows installs killing my bootloader, I created a boot disk. After the WIndows installation, my boot menu was predictably gone. No problem. Boot with the boot floppy in drive. Kernel panic - couldn't find init. Does this mean Windows not only killed the bootloader but my whole Linux partition?

Samba shares: How the "fsck" do I add one of these under mandrake? Under other distros I've found it simple, but where's the option under mandrake?!

Try typing root in the top entry field?
Or modify kdm's/gdm's setup to display
different users...


See above ... same thing: in kde, open the control
center, go system, login manager...

Boot of the installation CD, go to rescue mode
and use fdisk to find out ;)

Cheers,
Tink