Placed Mandriva 2011x86_64.1 into tray, rebooted and after short time it asks for my user and password. I tried "root", but still have no acceptable password. What gives? I am new to Linux but have tried several times b4 to get into it, always a dead end stops me. Looks like another.

when you install mandriva you get asked to create a password. at the point you are at you either have to create a new password for root or type the password you created during installation.

it is not the same as the user password you also had to create.


in case you have issues you can boot your Linux in runlevel 1 which will log you in with no password, then type "passwd" to create a new one without typing the previous one.

and if you care about the physical security of your machine make sure Linux does not allow to boot runlevel 1 without asking for password.