If you picked the paranoid security setting on install and took default
workstation or server install (may be all installs w/ paranoid set) then you
may only be able to su to root.  This is something to keep people from
hosing the system by being root all the time.  Also check
www.linux-mandrake.com , www.mandrakeuser.org , www.mandrakeexpert.org for
help with Mandrake if you don't get it here first.  There is a lot of good
help for mandrake users that I've not seen with other distros.  Also, look
at linuxnewbie.org for Newbieized Help Files or NHFs.  People that have had
trouble with the standard manuals and Man pages have write and post NHFs to
document how they dealt with problems.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bradley Miller [mailto:bradmiller@dslonramp.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 10:06 PM
> To: kclug@kclug.org
> Subject: Insanity to follow . . . I'm going Linux (postal?)
> 
> 
> Ok, I give.  I've installed Mandrake 7.2 TWICE on this PC.   
> The first time
> I tried my Netgear FA311 card . . . no go.   I decided to 
> retry the install
> with the 3C509 card.  It worked like a charm.  Unfortunately, in both
> installs, I can't get to root!  What's up with that?  I 
> specified the root
> password both times and typed it exactly right each time.  (I 
> had doubted
> this and thought maybe "fumble-fingered at 11:30 PM" blues 
> had troubled my
> first install.)   Is there some secret vodoo for this?  I can 
> login as the
> user I created, but I get permission denied errors ls'ing 
> directories.   It
> shows Kernel 2.2.17-21mkdsecure on a i586 / tty1 when I go to 
> login.  HELP!!!
> 
> -- Bradley Miller
> 
> 
> majordomo@kclug.org
>