From /etc/passwd:

root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

logged in as regular user [NOT root] I ran "kate /etc/shadow" and got an empty file. Don't know what that means. When I was editing these files I was using 'System Rescue CD'.

What is /etc/shadow look like?

Also, just to make sure, you're looking at /mnt/hda2/etc/passwd, right? Not the system rescue CD /etc/passwd...

Ok I'm a noobie and this part confuses me. When I go to the graphical login screen for Suse I have a choice of users all of whom are me. Then there is the box for user name and box for password. At the bottom left there are selections for options [to change desktop] and sessions. Exactly when and where do I use ALT+CTRL+mumber_between_1_6?

I believe right now, before logging in. This should give you a non-graphical login (like you had above) where it just says

Suse 10.0 blah blah [tty1]
login:

I'm logged into Suse as regular user and from terminal I ran >kate>/etc/passwd

Result:

root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/bin/bash
daemon:x:2:2aemon:/sbin:/bin/bash
lp:x:4:7:Printing daemon:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/bash
mail:x:8:12:Mailer daemon:/var/spool/clientmqueue:/bin/false
news:x:9:13:News system:/etc/news:/bin/bash
uucp:x:10:14:Unix-to-Unix CoPy system:/etc/uucp:/bin/bash
games:x:12:100:Games account:/var/games:/bin/bash
man:x:13:62:Manual pages viewer:/var/cache/man:/bin/bash
at:x:25:25:Batch jobs daemon:/var/spool/atjobs:/bin/bash
wwwrun:x:30:8:WWW daemon apache:/var/lib/wwwrun:/bin/false
ftp:x:40:49:FTP account:/srv/ftp:/bin/bash
postfix:x:51:51:Postfix Daemon:/var/spool/postfix:/bin/false
sshd:x:71:65:SSH daemon:/var/lib/sshd:/bin/false
ntp:x:74:65534:NTP daemon:/var/lib/ntp:/bin/false
mdnsd:x:78:65534:mDNSResponder runtime user:/var/lib/mdnsd:/bin/false
messagebus:x:100:101:User for D-BUS:/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
haldaemon:x:101:102:User for haldaemon:/var/run/hal:/bin/false
dhcpd:x:102:65534HCP server daemon:/var/lib/dhcp:/bin/false
nobody:x:65534:65533:nobody:/var/lib/nobody:/bin/bash
ben:x:1000:100:Ben Bullard:/home/ben:/bin/bash
tiger:x:1001:100:Ben Bullard:/home/tiger:/bin/bash
zebra:x:1002:100:Ben Bullard:/home/zebra:/bin/bash
vscan:x:65:103:Vscan account:/var/spool/amavis:/bin/false

I DID NOT put those smilies in there!

Okay, that's good. /etc/shadow is empty because it's read only for normal users. You can't see the file.

I know, the messes it all up. Use code brackets to make it work. They look like [cod] stuff you want as code[/cod] only replace cod with code...

It does. If I type in 'root' it immediatly says 'incorrect login' without asking for password.

Does this mean to go to console login:

Machinename login:

and type [code}

???

Okay, let's try a different approach. Can you ls -l /etc/passwd and ls -l /etc/shadow

No, I was just trying to tell you why the smiley's occured. colon D will be a smiley. If you want to paste things as code and not have the smileys invade on this forum, use the words code and /code inside of [] to begin/end your text.

xxxxx@zzzzzz:~> ls -l /etc/passwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1259 2006-02-23 13:14 /etc/passwd



xxxxxx@zzzzzz:~> ls -l /etc/shadow
-rw-r----- 1 root shadow 665 2006-02-23 13:15 /etc/shadow

Thanks for the tip. I need to study on that for the future. It's all about learning right now.