Ok here it is,
i have a 20 gig HDD running Microsoft Millennium Edition. Using partition magic I created a 7 gig EXT2 root partition and a 20 mb swap partition, i rebooted the computer then with the RED HAT 7.0 CD I started the installation. Here I chose to do a workstation class installation. then the guide I was using told me I needed a third partition, a boot partition, so I chose to manually partition with disk druid and created a boot partition then formatted the three. I then went through all the usual mumbo jumbo and set my root and account password. The installation finished and i created a boot disk.

now when I try to load linux with the boot disk it starts the process but asks me for a login pword and name and i don't know what this means and Im stuck. What is this login stuff and how elese do i boot Linux other than with the boot disk.

I'm not sure about the first problem of having to start it with a bootdisk mine has always installed cleanly the first time. I think the second problem is that it is asking for a user name and password which you should have had the option of providing during the install process. For instance root, and password (the word you chose as the root password). Or if you defined another username then you'd enter that username and enter the password you defined to go with it... At least that's what the problem sounds like.

when you were installing did you come to a screen talking about something called lilo? its a program which starts things up and lets you choose between windows and linux at start up. if you just switch the computer on without the floppies then it should give you a little screen to let you choose which os you want to use.

the prompt it gave you is to login as a user. if you set another one up (apart from root) during the install then you type that name and then the password for the person. if you just have the root account, then type root at the name bit and then the password for root. then you should create a different person to use, root is dangerous to use for everyday work.

hopefully you should have already added a different user than root during install.

Alex

Since you don't seem to have been able to get into your new Linux system, you shouldn't have any important files stored there-in. You could re-install it, and re-read any information displayed about Lilo.

Try this:

• Install as normal.
• When it comes to the Lilo part, put it in the MBR (Master Boot Record). Some reckon that this is more dangerous, but so long as you don't 'fiddle' with Lilo settings (unless you have-to) you should be OK.
• Make a boot disk.
• Make a 'root' user and a normal user. never login as 'root' unless you're confident that you know what you're doing.
• Remeber these usernames/passwords for all your life's worth.

I am presuming that you're a newbie, so I advise you to never give up! Once you've got your Linux system running, it can be quite daunting trying to get everything sorted. It is still (to some extent) an OS for 'computer-people', but it will get easier!

Good luck.

I don't know how your partitions are placed on your harddrive but I would think that the 7 gig ext2 partition is placed after your 13 gig winME partition.
This is most oftenly a problem with LILO since lilo only can reach the first 1024 cylinders of your hard disk.
Because of this your kernel will have to reside within the first 1024 cylinders, this means the first 8 gig of your drive.

Try to make a small partition, about 20-30 meg, at the very beginning of your hard disk.
This will be your /boot partition where Red Hat installs your kernel. Don't forget to tell Red Hat installation to mount this as /boot
As soon as kernel is up and running hard drive sizes are no problem.

I couple of Ideas
 

First and foremost, If you plan to develop software you need to upgrade to redhat 7.1. 7.0 has corrupt libraries and applications will only run with other corrupt libraries.

* Second Linux is a multiuser OS and will always ask for a logon name and password. These were setup during installation. If you only have root, log in as root pull up a terminal and add a user.

$ adduser username
$ passwd username
These two commands will set up a new user. username means the name you want that user to be called. Also it will be the logon name. So now as root you need to log out and sign back in as this new user. If you need to be root and alot of times you will, use the "su" command and log in as root.

* Third Somebody mentioned that the /boot parition must reside within the first 1024 cylinders and that is true, but the problem is that windows occupies the entire hd with a fat32 parition and changing paritions is risky stuff. I have never used parition magic but with diskdruid you are going to be in trouble. I can tell how to do it with fips and it is fairly simple. I don't believe this is your problem, diskdruid wouldnt have let you create a boot parition out of range.

Try this reboot and don't use the boot disk, lilo should kick in and ask you which OS you want. Choose Linux and log in as root if need be, create another user as explained above log out, log in as new user and take it from there.

remember immense control and power can have catastrophic results. Be patient and backup everything.