Hi, thought I'd check to see if this worked for you?

Merry christmas while we're at it Eat lots, drink more and be merry!

greetings liamoboyle!
wow - sure is good to hear from you!
impressive. few people go out of their way
like that to follow-up with a stranger.

i sadly left this hanging undone a few weeks back.
so, box has just been wastefully sitting
booted to login screen.
guess i should either work with it
or turn it off eh ;+)
actually, either box power management
or monitor goes into screen saver after
a few minutes, and its stacked on top
of another purring cpu, so i don't realize it's on.

your root password change procedure seemed to
be accepted but it didn't change inability to login.
"incorrect username or password. Letters must be typed in correct case."

plus, trying to communicate with mr. frustrated e-bay seller
who last heard, was sending me a replacement cd-rom drive.
the light on drive shines non-stop, which to me in win world,
doesn't seem right & don't have any other bootable cd's to test.
guess he sold a bunch of these used boxes & this one
was the only one without valid login values attached :+(

so, let me get off my arse & dive back into previous posts
again and try to get back with you. many thanks

dave r