I instelled Mandrake 9.1 this week, yeah I know, a bit late because Mandrake 9.2 is expected quickly but the computer where I installed it on (as an update for 9.0) wouldn't do a thing because of a damaged bootloader. I think you all understand that I have a lot to configure in a newly installed distribution, and for a lot of thing (for example: configuring Postfix or the ethernet-card) you have to be root, but, other than in MDK 9.0 you can't login as root in a graphic-area, that is, on first sight. Does any of you know if it is possible to be root in a windowmanager or should I just edit these settings in a terminal?

TIA for an answer.

Welcome to LQ.

In a window manager just open up a terminal then run:
su -

Followed by your root password.

You can log in as root and start the windowmanager as root, but it's something to be avoided because it's so easy to mess things up operating as root. (I've noticed KDE issues a strong warning when I log in by mistake as root. I normally don't use KDE but that's how the root account happens to be set up.)

What I do is what david_ross suggested; I do what I have to do as root, and then get out of that mode as soon as I can.

Even so, I still manage to do my share of damage now and then.

You can log in as root and start the windowmanager as root, but it's something to be avoided because it's so easy to mess things up operating as root. (I've noticed KDE issues a strong warning when I log in by mistake as root. I normally don't use KDE but that's how the root account happens to be set up.)

True, I normally use root in an graphical interface when I have to config the first things. Then I leave and never login as root again

What I do is what david_ross suggested; I do what I have to do as root, and then get out of that mode as soon as I can.

That's what I normally do, or I just start the Konsole SuperUser terminal directly.