HI all

I just installed in virtual machine on my pc laptop asus with 4gb., a OS fedora (last version) downloaded by the website fedoraproject
the installation went good and i can use my OS fedora *(in virtual, though)
I wanted to start to try the basic linux commands, as I am totally newbie with linux, and i wanted to type su in terminal *loaded pressing alt+f2
the session opened i got the blank terminal
i wrote "su" and the terminal closed and reapper the normal desktop of fedora. I have tried also basic commands as pwd and last, and happne the same.
my question is. how to verify what is the account i have, in fedora? user and administRator, and how to enter as administrator in terminaL? is correct typing Su only, without anything else?
thanks in avance
p.

in fedora ,like most linux distros, you can NOT boot into the "root" account in the GUI
that was disabled

it is VERY unwise to run the GUI as root using the root account

Now you can boot into the root account in the TEXT only ( run level 3 )
-- no GUI just the terminal .

for the terminal session you will need to use one of the two "su" and "su -"
the two are different

In the terminal a normal user will have a >
and root will have a #

"12345678@linux-user:~> " --- normal user
"linux-user:~ # " ---- this is the root user ( you can also hack the os to make the root account text a different color )

as for commands
a bit old but it has not changed
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/
http://rute.2038bug.com/rute.html.gz
general things
http://tldp.org/

and then the fedoraforum
http://www.fedoraforum.org/
and set up guides
http://www.fedoraforum.org/?view=fedora_setup

If you use a virtual terminal, like Alt+F2, it should ask you to log in: you do so with your normal name and password. If it's just giving a blank screen, that's a new one on me. But you don't need a virtual terminal: use the terminal emulator (in the System tools menu).

As John says, only use su when it's absolutely necessary: if you make a mistake, anything could happen. Do not try this at home:
rm -fr / unwanted-folder
The space accidentally inserted after "/" would cause it to be interpreted as
rm -fr /
deleting the entire current directory!

When you've finished with being administrator, press Ctrl+d to go back to being yourself.

DO NOT RUN THIS !!!!!!!!
-- very bad things will happen
that is the FORCED removal of ALL files , that is until the system crashes

but it is rather easy to make a normal everyday typo
by accidentally putting a blank space in front of the folder name

( root is ALL powerful and with that comes the FULL responsibility )

To identify your current id... use "id".

This will list out the current UID, gid, list of groups, and depending on your distribution, the security context you are currently using.

few things of note.

1. you are running in a VM, you may not have full access to all of the virtual terminals like you would in a real system.

2. ctrl+alt+F1-6 prob. will not function in the VM as that command will be captured by the host OS, not the VM.

3. easiest way to get to the CLI is to run the terminal via the GUI and then you can su, or su - to gain root access:

3a. put the mouse in the top left corner of the screen, as if you did a default install you will be running Gnome for the desktop.
3b. along the left hand side of the screen you will see a row of 3x3 boxes. click that.
3c. this will cause a bunch of icons to show in the screen. scroll down until you see a black window called Terminal. click that.
3d. you will then be presented with a white box and a $ prompt. Now you can type in basic linux commands and if you need root access to run yum or some other administrative tool you can su - at this point.

Note on step 3b, you will also see a dialog bar you can type in, you can just type terminal there and it should pop up visible to click.

As others have noted running as root is not a good idea in Linux. The ONLY time you should be root is if you are performing administrative tasks, like I mentioned above yum, or adding hardware like a printer to the system, etc...

hope that helps.

Hi , thanks to everyone for the reply. I appreciated.
I will avoid su unless very necessary ( install printers etc e.g) and i found the terminal session icon in applications. i am very a new starter...all good to me to kickstart using fedora, it seems so cool!
i will try other 2 or 3 Distro OS *ubuntu, mint, opensuse i thought * in virtual, and maybe the next one will be my first linux main OS
bye