I am new to Linux all together and thought it would finally be time to check it out. Install went fine except for trying to autoconfigure the 3com ISA/NIC and when I went to test the video all I saw was a rainbow of vertical colors. Now when I did my first reboot my bios comes up stating config changed and I just have to exit bios setup to start Linux. Now all of the services start up and I get the bright green [OK] and them the login prompt. Mandrake Linux release 9.0 (dolphin)for i586 Kerlel 2.4.19-16mdk on a i586 / tty1 LOGIN: During setup I supplied passwords for ROOT, Greg, and none of these will work. I get "Login Incorrect" no matter what I type. I did search all over the net for answers before turning to you all but as you can see I have to ask the experienced group now. Thanks in advance

could it be you should try with root and greg instead of ROOT and Greg?

Thanks. I only capped those in my message to highlight that I already tried root. I did not put caps on any of my logon names. It was a good reply though. Thanks

I found this, let me know if it worked for you. If you've forgotten your root password, unfortunately it is shockingly easy to change the password. The trick is to boot directly into single user mode. Boot your machine, then at the LILO prompt enter: linux single Then you should get a prompt that looks like sh-2.05#, from there type: passwd root Then follow the prompts to change the password. Next, type sync; reboot That's it! Single user mode is also helpful if you want to do maintenance without all the services running, it's something like "safe mode" in Windows.

Just read the rest of it, reckon I ought to add this as well,, Securing Your System: The above demonstrates why securing your server's console is important! In about 5 minutes, anyone with physical access to the computer can change the root password and get root access by passing the linux single option at the lilo boot prompt. LILO can be protected against this by putting a password on options passed to the kernel. In /etc/lilo.conf, you'll see your definition for the boot image, for example: image=/vmlinuz label=linux initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.x.img read-only root=/dev/hda6 After this add: password=yourpassword restricted Exit, and run "/sbin/lilo". If someone tries to pass an option like "single" they'll need the password. Next, make the lilo.conf file read-writeable by root only: chmod 600 /etc/lilo.conf Be aware that these passwords will merely slow down the determined attacker. They won't prevent someone from booting from a linux boot floppy, and mounting your root partition. The only way to get around this would be to disable booting from a floppy in your computer's BIOS, then password protect the BIOS.

Thanks Armin and Bryan! I finally got it figured out and am now at the GUI screen for the 1st time! Hard to believe that this OS works this good on and older IBM PC330 with a modified PentI and 64MB Fastpage ram with a 4MB integrated Video system. What I did was just reconfigured my graphics and got to the screen that asks if I would like to start with the GUI at boot. It still loads all of the text and the [OK] remarks and brings me to a login screen but after a few seconds of ignoring it it boots into the GUI. Very clean looking desktop! Thanks again and now I have a basic Mandrake learning tool sitting next to all of my MS Machines! I think I can learn this stuff! Thanks again and G'day.