Hi. I'm doing my first ever Linux install, using Mandrake 7.1 - I've solved a few minor techical conundrums, but now I have a really trivial problem:

I have reached the stage "Set root password". It has to be entered twice (sensible!), and somehow I managed to get them not to match, and got the message "The passwords do not match Please try again".

I have tried again - just typing twice, using delete plenty of times in the gaps before typing, using backspace plenty of times in the gaps before typing. I have tried going between the fields using Tab and using return. Every time I get the same message.

Anyone got any ideas?

(Nothing appears when I type the password, but I am assuming this is normal, analagous to the use of stars in windows password boxes.)

HELP!

Thanks,
Happybunny (or I hope I soon will be)

I don't recall how you get the cursor/focus to the first text box but (and, probably, it is already there), once it is there, type nothing but the letters/numbers for your password. If you need to move the focus to the second text box, use the mouse or Tab and, again, type nothing but the letters/numbers for the password. Use the mouse to click Done (whatever is next) or Tab to select Done (whatever is next) + Enter.

If you are at a command-line dialog (don't think that is the case here) you would type nothing but the letters/numbers of your password + Enter.

Good luck.

This is a character based screen, with a "window", if you know what I mean - just like the old DOS days.
I have already been doing exactly as you suggest, and it doesn't work! Alas :-(

I have installed a range of versions of DOS and Windows many, many times, and I am not at all an IT beginner - I just wondered if this was a Linux peculiarity (something special to do with password entry, or a known bug in this install, with a known way past it, for example). If it were a Windows problem I'd go to MS knowledge base, or a couple of other places to hunt for a solution, but as I'm new to Linux, I wasn't sure where to go, and couldn't find anything specific on the net, so I thought I might be missing something obvious - I probably am.

Thanks for trying! I'm going to bed now - if no one has a brainwave by tomorrow morning, I'll just start again.

I've had to re-start Windows installations a few times too... Heigh ho...



Thanks,
Happybunny