Mandriva 2008 Password Problem

[No1Spank]

Hi I've just installed Linux for the first time on an old (PIII 1GHz) laptop to see how I would get on with it before playing on a newer machine.
The CD came with Linux Format with a bootable version of Mandriva 2008. I have absolutley no experience of Linux yet so don't know if I'm at fault. When I boot up and load Mandriva I'm prompted to log on. I type in my user name, but it won't let me enter a password. If I press enter it just asks me to log on again.
Also I'm only just getting back into computers after a 8 year break so I would be grateful if someone could fill me in on how to burn a bootable ISO file of other Linux operating systems from within both Linux and Windows systems. At present I have computers running ME, XP and Vista if this makes any difference.
I also have a couple of burning programs such as Roxio, but they seem a little complicated to me at the moment.
Thanks for reading and any help will be much appreciated.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Check the link in my signature for lots of good information on getting started with Linux. It's a lot of reading, but worth the effort.

For burning making sure you properly burn ISO files to disk, check this HowTo. It includes information to make sure you properly boot the CD.

Have fun experimenting with Linux...