swiss

Hi I am a newbie to linux and have installed mandrake 10.1. How do I get to the root prompt? When I startup mandrake automatically starts using autologin. Then what do I do? I only seem to have konsole available and all i get is username@localhost how do I change to login from this? I need an idiots guide to talk me through I have looked online and in books etc but can't seem to find the answer.
Any help really appreciated
Thanks
Andy

jens

Log in as your normal user.
Open a terminal and type:
...this will ask for your root password.
Type it, press enter and that's it.

To login as root outside the GUI:
*press Ctrl-Alt-F3 (this will bring you to a CLI in runlevel 3)
*log in with the name root and give your root password.

In both cases, type exit to get back.

__________________
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire

adrenaline

type su -
that will be true root
su is user with some root privs (not all)

__________________
Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had.
-- Linus Torvalds

jens

Not everyone agrees that's a safe thing to do

__________________
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire

swiss

Huge big thank you. Such a simple thing that I've found really difficult to find.
I have tried to access the fstab by typing through as the root@localhost, /etc/fstab but I get access denied. Any ideas?
Thanks
Andy

valan

su is true root just as su - is, and as sudo is. The difference is that su - starts as a login shell with a clean environment. If you are root, you are true and full root, there is no halfway there, it's all or nothing. su does have it's advantages over su - because it doesn't clean the environment first, this is quite useful sometimes.

ozar

Try this:

That should get you into fstab with the vim editor. Substitute the name of the editor with any other editor of your choice.

Hope this helps.