Hi, I am a newbie on Linux and have the responsibility of a Linux server to manage ... The Server is using Red Hat Linux 5.2 (Apollo) Kernel 2.0.36 onan i686 The problem was similar to a week ago when the my user name and password for ftp,I first encountered the "loging incorrect". With the root user and password I was able to loging and during that time I changed the password of root user which I have been using successufully until today....the same problem encountered loging in via Telnet..."loging incorrect"! I am unable to loging...is there any way to access the server? Is there a bug in that version of Red Hat or was the system hacked? Please any help is welcome to this newbie to Linux. Thanks in advance!

First off, DON'T use root to login through telnet/ftp. This will send the login info as clear text and that is a security risk. If you want to connect through a telnet-type system to machine use ssh instead. You can boot the machine by using linux single (or single) in lilo. If RH5 had the graphical login screen press ctrl-x (atleast in RH7.1 its ctrl-x) to get a boot promp. Now it will boot into single mode, where you can change the root login with passwd command. After this you can go to init 3 (no X-window) or init 5 (X-window running) for any normal stuff by typing "init X".

I run Redhat 6.2 at home, and trying to connect with Telnet to it with User Id root is simply impossible (isn't that so for all Unix's?). With telnet, one has to log on with a non-root account and then once you're in you can use su to switch to root...

AFAIK you can login with root through telnet, but that is generally restricted as default (i use ssh, so haven't used telnetd myself). The reason being that it is a security risk. Su-ing to root with telnet is equally a risk, so that should be avoided as well. If you want to do admin work over the net use ssh (www.openssh.org).

I use redhat7. I get the xwindows login UI. When i type the user name and password, it accepts the username and password and after a while without showing the next screen, comes back to the same login UI. y is thta so?