LinuxQuestions.org - initial login problems

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- - initial login problems (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/mandriva-30/initial-login-problems-525811/)

initial login problems

Hello, all,

After 15 years administering M$ crap, I'm dipping my toe into the Linux waters for my own personal growth.

One of my life's favorite sayings: "Life's tough when you're a dumbass!"

Well, that saying certainly applies to this n00b right now.

I've installed 2007 Free on a laptop, and thought I correctly configured the root admin name/password, but it keeps dumping me right back to the login prompt.

Any ideas? Where exactly do you set the admin name? I remember it asking for the security administrator name or email, but I don't remember any other place. The value I set at that prompt during setup doesn't work. I am absolutely sure of the password I set, so I think the problem is the account name. If I missed it in the config section post-install, then I'll reinstall. Or is there a default initial admin account that I can get in and then change?

Any help would be appreciated. I hope that after a few weeks of learning I will be able to contribute to this community.

it'll definitely be the root password, no other names exist. if you have somehow got locked out, you can do this... on your bootloader screen hit "e" if it's grub or the [key i can't actually remember any more] if it's lilo. select the kernel boot line and add "1" to it. if you now continue to boot to this environment, you'll be put into runlevel 1, which means you get dumped in as root without a password. then you can run "passwd" and set it as you see fit. sorry if that's a bit vague, esp for lilo, but that's how to change the password in general.

"Where exactly do you set the admin name? I remember it asking for the security administrator name or email, but I don't remember any other place. The value I set at that prompt during setup doesn't work."

Linux is slightly different when compared to Windows, the superuser(root) cannot have a name set to it in Linux. The default user name for superuser is `root`. Where Windows lets you create users with Administrative powers fairly easily `control Userpasswords2` and then set authority for that user from the superuser `Administrator`. For Linux it is considered very insecure to be root all of the time, so you need to create a regular user and use `su` (switch user) or `sudo` to become root (password prompted).

The only other way to become root as a regular user is to add that user to the root wheel group, which is also considered faily unsafe.

Im assuming your problem is (maybe I ahve misunderstood your post) you assume you have changed your root name when asked for email (or possibly at some other time) when infact the root username is `root` and will use the password you initial set for it. This is why that value does not work at the prompt during setup.

Are you trying to access root with su or log in as root at log in screen? root log in at GUI is disabled in 2007.