Have tried 'rootpw=(my chosen password)' in terminal but this does not seem to work. I am completely new to Zenwalk and have had very little experience working with Terminal in Ubuntu previously. The manual for Zenwalk 6 gives 'ZenLive' as the password but this does not work. When I can do this I want to install the OS to a clean (probably unformatted) hard drive. Will be grateful for help in this.

In order to change the root password you need to be logged in as root. I've not used Zenwalk for quite a while, but the live password always used to be ZenLive. Have you tried opening a terminal, then using su and ZenLive when it prompts for a password?

The command to change the password would be 'passwd', though I can't see much point to chaning it for a live CD.

I would also have to say that if you want to install Zenwalk, you would be better off with the native install CD, rather than the live CD. The install is very close to the original Slackware install, and itsn't hard to follow, especially if you are instalilng to a clean hard drive.

Paul.

Many thanks toothandnail,
But still have the same problem.
'ZenLive' in terminal did not work. Then tried your second suggestion with 'passwd' and this accepted a new password, but when trying to use it in Zenwalk live, it still does not work. The reason that I ask about this is because in addition to a full install to hard drive, I want to be able to use Zenwalk on a USB Key, and to do what should be quite simple things like install applications with 'netpkg' for which it always asks for the password. I also want to try this kind of thing before the full install to HD.
Apparently 'ZenLive' was used as PW in version 6.0 but has been changed in this new version 7.0.
Would be grateful for Any more ideas please?

Alan D

Check the Zenwalk site link below, scroll down to the Important Note section:

http://www.zenwalk.org/modules/news/...hp?storyid=139

I've not run a live version of Zenwalk for a while. Looking at it, the command you had ('rootpw=(my chosen password)') is correct, but it must be used at the boot stage - it is a 'cheatcode', so you need to use from the boot loader, not from a terminal.

Not really on topic, but my best suggestion would be to try Salix (http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Home). I switched from Zenwalk to Salix just before Zenwalk 7.0 came out, and wouldn't switch back. If nothing else, Salix offers a 64-bit version, which Zenwalk still does not. It also has an easy way of installing the live CD to a USB flash drive - I keep one in my laptop bag all the time now.... Though I would still suggest that a hard drive install is best done from the install CD rather than the live CD.

Paul.

Thanks Paul,
Not sure that I am doing this correctly. Hit tab to get 'cheatcode' on boot-up and just typed 'rootpw=(my password)' then hit enter. But the password is still not accepted. Should I be doing this differently? (There was a couple of lines of type that showed up before I typed my bit - and no acknowledgement after until I hit enter when it went into the boot process)
Regarding Salix, it seems to be only for i486. The computer I am using is i386. Will this work with my i386 machine? You certainly make it sound attractive. The reason that I chose Zenwalk was because it was the only OS that was able to find my wireless network, and of course I liked its way. I am using a Dell inspiron 1150.
Thanks again
Alan

I think you are taking things a bit too literally.... I downloaded the 7.0 live cd, burned it and ran it. At the second boot prompt (after the language selections), I hit tab and entered this:

When the system came up, I opened a terminal, entered su and responded to the password prompt by entering 'newpwd' (without the quotes, of course). It got me to a root prompt without any problems. Try that and see what you get.

Looking at the specs for the Inspiron 1150, it seems that its either a P4 or a Celeron CPU? If that is the case, you should be able to run i486 code without a problem. The 64-bit support in Salix is useless to you, but the i486 code should be fine.

Depending on how much memory you have (the specs I saw only listed 512MB), it might be worth your while looking for a lighter distro, even though both Zenwalk and Salix are a good deal lighter than many of the mainstream options. One you could look at would be VectorLinux Light. Not sure if they've released a light version of VL 7.0 (and the 6.0 series is a bit outdated), but if the Light version of 7 is out, it should suit your machine if it does have limited memroy. Vector is also Slackware based.

Paul.

I do thank you so much for your help Paul but I am beginning to think that perhaps I am the problem. It is all made to sound so easy to install Linux but I have a problem at every turn.

1)At 2nd prompt, after hitting tab, at bottom of screen there is displayed:
> /boot/vmlinuz initrd=/boot/initrd.gz max_loop=256 vga=791 locale=en_US.UTF-8
keymap=us splash=silent sli=yes useswap=yes copy2ram=no
I then entered rootpw=newpwd (exactly that, followed by return) and booting continued.

2) In terminal : su(return key)
Password: newpwd
su: Authentication failure

So stalemate again!

3) Downloaded Salix live xfce and burnt to CD and ran it.
As with Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, and Mint, on this machine, the Dell - which by the way has 1GB memory, it was not able to find my wireless network, and would you believe it, wants a password for so many things again!
(Mint live CD works beautifully on a Lenovo laptop and instantly finds my network and printer)

After using Ubuntu 8.10 for 3.5 years on my desktop (it's still in use though as I had problems installing that and was too afraid to do an upgrade to it) I decided to try some distros on the old Dell laptop before thinking about how I would save e-mails etc from this desktop before installing a new O.S. I have grown so reliant on Linux which is so much better in most ways than Windows. But this is so frustrating. But I'll have another try!
Apologies for bending your ear so much.
And thanks again,

Alan

When you get to the login prompt, what happens if you type "root" without quotes instead of su? Then enter the password.

Hello Yancek,
exactly the same as before
Thanks, Alan

You're welcome. I just wish it was somewhat more effective help....

That is really strange. It sounds as though there is something in the laptop that Zenwalk doesn't like, but I've not encountered that sort of problem before. I must admit, one of the reasons I've moved away from Zenwalk was bugs that haven't been squashed in a long time. For instance, it is one of the very few distros that I have to fight with to get it to throttle the CPU of my Lenovo T61. Every other distro I've used since I got the machine (over 3 years ago now) has recognized the CPU and throttled it effectively. I also found that, when I was trying the 7.0 live CD, I could not shut it down - it got into an endless loop about unmounting partitions - had to power the machine down to get out of it.

The specs I looked at for your laptop didn't list a wireless card. If you can get Salix to boot, you can try finding out what the chipset is - most wireless cards can be configured, some are just a lot easier than others... As for passwords in Salix live, that one is, fortunately, nice and simple - the only password you need is the root password, which is 'live' (no quotes and all lower case). It doesn't use sudo the way Ubuntu and its derivatives do, though you can set it up that way if you want to.

I've been using Thinkpads for a number of years (right back to the days when they were still IBM). Not only are they well built, they are usually pretty easy to configure and get working under Linux.

Well, if you can get a boot to the Salix live, try to find out what the wireless card in the Dell is - use something like this:

With that sort of information, it should be possible to work out what is needed to get the Dell talking to your network.

What sort of problems did you have installing Ubuntu on your desktop machine? If you're nervous about upgrading, there are a few things you can do. For instance, if you have or can get an alternate hard drive, pull the drive with Ubuntu on it, install another drive and experiment with installation on it. That means you don't risk the data or OS on the machine as it is now, gives you a fall-back should things go wrong.

No problem. Hopefully you can get the problems sorted out. I would hate not to be able to install and use Linux - I was an OS/2 user for a long time, and hated the thought of going to Windows when IBM abandoned OS/2 development. I spend a lot of my time fixing Windows problems - just glad I don't have to depend on it for my own use...

Paul.

What exactly do you see when you get to the "terminal" or login prompt where you entered "su" or "root", on the screen to the left of the cursor?

Paul,
Thank you again for your patience and diligence,
What exactly should I type in terminal to find out what my wireless card is?
Salix running OK (except for wireless) and password 'live' works nicely. (big sigh of relief!)

Alan

Depends on whether its an internal card or a USB device. If its internal:

should give you the information. If its USB, try /sbin/lsusb, though you may have to wade through quite a few items to find it - post the data here and someone should be able to sift through it for you.

Glad to hear it. One of the nice features of the Salix live CD is the ability to clone it - so you can set things up the way you want them, intall extra packages that you need (though you obviously need to be careful of how big the image may become), and then produce a custom iso with your changes saved.

Good luck with the wireless.

Paul.

Is this what is wanted?

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
one[~]$