Ewen

I have two harddrives which I can alternat by using a HDD docking bay. On one drive I have Mandrake 9 which is working well apart from a kernel problem which I have enquired about in another thread.

I have tonight installed Red Hat 7.1 (twice) on the second drive but I cannot get into it. The logon requester appears and asks for the login name which I duly enter then it asks for the password which I enter and it shows Login Failed. The information is exactely as I enetered it during install but it fails everytime.

Being a complete newbie at Linux what do I do to overcome the problem... another install?

gothic

The only thing I can suggest is when you get to the logon screen type in 'root' then 'Enter'. This should give you admin priviliges, and you shouldn't need a password either. Once in Admin mode, type in 'startx' at the prompt and this should get you to the desktop dialog, where you choose your desktop (KDE/Gnome).

I must point out tho that running a second linux from another HDD caused me all sorts of problems with lilo inasmuch as once I had installed Mandrake to my second hard drive IT (Mandrake itself) decided to alter all the bloody drive letters, causing me to remedy the problem by physically altering the config files to mirror the changes.
Hope you haven't the same problems.....took me simply ages to do the repairs.

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SPeedY_B

I think you will need a password for the root account, anything that will allow you to setup a fully working linux system without is VERY un-secure.

As for the user/pass problem the username and passwords will be case sensitve (you may have put a capital letter at the start of your name without thinking about it, or something like that?)

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gothic

Root only asks for a password if one was set at install!!

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SPeedY_B

redhat will ask for one at install time, I highly doubt it would let you install a fully working operating system with no root password set.

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gothic

I must have installed Redhat/Mandrake/Debian/Corel Linux perhaps hundreds of times.......You are given a choice whether or not to enter a root password!!

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SPeedY_B

Well i apolagise then. I was wrong.
every time i've installed Linux/BSD i've been asked for a root password and not been allowed to continue without.
I don't use RedHat because its notoriously un-secure, i didnt know they where that loose about things such as the root password, bsd asks that you use a mixture of letters and numbers and won't let installation continue unless its convinced your password is considered secure.

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Ewen

Thank you Gothic and all the repondents for your replies.

Actually Gothic I don't have two installations on one drive... they are on separate drive units and with the aid of the docking bay I can swap them so that each drive is totally independent of the other.

MadHaXX()|2

I dont know about the other linux distro's but redhat WILL NOT let you install w/ out a root password (I'm looking at the install screen right now). I seriously doubt that the others do either cause you wouldnt be able to log in, unless it lets the initial log in to have root priv. and if thats the case I want to know which one does this (I mean take me a screen shot w/ a digital camera or something cause i want to be able to exploit this flaw if it really exists......)

gothic

Watch this space.........

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Ewen

Thank you to all who have replied... the error in this case lies with the idiot behind the keyboard! After entering the admin password and then my name and my password there is a little button named 'ADD'... need I say more?

Thanks again