OK I'm new to linux and taking an introduction to linux and the instructor wants us to logon to the command line with a certain login name and password. I can get to the login screen and type the username, however when i go to type the password nothing happens and that is as far as i can get. I should mention that I'm using fedora 13 cd that came with the book and running it with vmware fusion on a macbook. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Are you getting any error message when you type the password and press enter? Or is it that you cannot see the characters that you are typing when you are prompted for the password? If you see no characters while typing in the password in the console - that's the expected behavior, so just type the password and press enter, you'll be logged in and will get the command prompt.

For security reasons Linux (at least on the command line) will not show the characters of the password (or obscured characters, like the *-sign) when you type it in. Just type your password blindly and press the Enter key.

I get no error message nothing types the cursor doesn't move the only thing that comes up is incorrect password.

As I stated in my previous post, the cursor will not move, no characters will show up when you type in the password. This is normal behavior, it is intended that way. Type in the password nonetheless, do it slow so that you are sure that you have made no error and press Enter afterwards.

thank you for your help

is your instructor aware that fedora 13 is a dead and unsupported version

the ONLY two supported versions right now are fedora 15 and fedora 16

when you install fedora the anaconda installer will ask YOU to make a root password
then ON THE FIRST boot you are directed to set up the system
the time zone and a NORMAL user account because
fedora dose NOT allow root login to a GUI
you can NOT log in as root into gnome

this would be the TEXT only boot
you do NOT see a gray window asking you to click on a user
but instead

text on the left side asking for a user name
on the "live cd" there is no password
the only account is root

now if this is not a "live cd" but a install cd you have to install it first


For help with the END OF LIFE fedora 13 you might want to ask over at the fedoraforum's
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/

"End of Life " section
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=75