Hello-

I am stoked. I finally got Red Hat 7.0 to dual boot with Windows ME. LILO loads and everything. The problem now is that I need to use Xconfigurator. Here's the deal. I open a virtual console (from gnome) and type Xconfiguration then I am told that I have to be in root to run Xconfiguration. No Problem so I hit CD /root and I am told that I do not have permission. So my question is, how the heck to I log in to /root? During setup I set a password for root but I don't get prompted for it when I try to log in to root. I also created two accounts one for my wife and one for me that have different passwords than the root. I am totally lost and I am counting on trickykid to help me out. He/she has been the biggest help. I hope you read this. Thanks

at the console type su (for super user)
it will then prompt for the root password

I thought I was the only one who did that. Back in 96 I got my first Slakware CD set. It took me two days to figure out that there was a difference between "/root" folder, "root" user, and "/" for the root directory tree.

Hi, watt25 :-)

Let me try and make tings clear for you. Just like you created a user account for you and your wife, there is also a user account called “root”. “root” is like the administrator account in windowsNT. It is also revered to as “super user” (su), because it has the highest authority. The “root” user can remove and view any file or directory regardless of its shares or attributes. So you can basically see that the “root” is a very powerful user (almost godlike). This is why it is recommended that you log on as a normal user, like you or your wife, and only use the root when you absolutely have to.

To change to the root user without logging out and the logging in as “root”, type “su” at the command prompt. Type the password for “root”, and now you are logged in as root and can do anything the “root” can do. When you are finished type “exit” to return to a normal user again.

You may have noticed that Linux created a home directory for every user you created under “/home/”. There is also home directory for “root”, but it is not under “/home/” but instead it is under “/root”. Only the root user can access this directory, witch is why you received a “no permission” error when trying to access it as a normal user.

One more thing about a root. The top most directory on a Linux (or dos for that matter) system is called the root directory. So the “/” directory is your root directory under Linux. Under dos your root directory would be C:\ for your C: drive.
Please note that the directory “/root” is only a directory called “root” witch is in your root “/” directory. :-)

Sorry I didn't make it in time.
But the others are right.
When you begin with the login prompt when you first boot up, you can login as root, by typing root of course then the password. But the safest way is to su (or use sudo and can learn more about it here http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ ) into root for those types of privileges, then logout when your done so while your logged in as root, you can't do damage by accident to your OS.

Drew

Super cool-

Just wanted to thank everyone for breaking things down some for me. Things are working just fine now! Next stop, mounting drives! Thanks again

Joe