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[J. Erik Hemdal]

> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 14
> Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 21:24:06 -0400
> From: "Tom Harvey" <martcialc at comcast.net>
>
> Why is it, that right after I installed Fedora, it asked for a Username
and
> Password and I have no idea what those could be. I didn't set a Username.

Hi Tom:

Fedora is a multi-user, multitasking OS.  The idea of users, passwords, and
groups was designed-in and not bolted on.  You can't "turn off logins" in
Fedora as you can in some flavors of Windows just by refusing to use them.

If you don't establish any ordinary users, you have a single user with
administrative rights, called 'root'.  Use this for the username and then
use whatever password you gave root  during installation (even if that
password is a null string because you entered nothing when prompted).

The commands available to you as root are broader in scope and potentially
more damaging than they are for an ordinary user.  Root can wipe out the
entire filesystem with 'rm -rf /', among other nasties.  You can break
things that you won't realize until later, when it can be really hard to
repair.

Leaving your system exposed without any root password is extremely
dangerous.  Even if you are not exposed to hackers, root access can be
tricky even for experienced Linux gurus.  If you did not set a root
password, it's a good idea to set one.  That way you work as root only when
you deliberately set out to be root.

To obtain an ordinary user now, run redhat-config-users (probably easiest)
or the useradd command and set up at least one other username and password.

Good luck.

Erik


>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Tom