New to linux, very claustrophobic

[u82manny]

I aquired a knoppix 5.0.1 cd from a friend about a week ago. I managed to install it onto an 850mhz/256ram/32mbvid/5.5Ghdd that was just sitting around. I chose the debian installation instead of the other two options.

I've been using a mswindows environment for the past 16 years and have grown accustomed to being able to change what I want, when I want and how I want(through a GUI).

I am interested in learning linux but my main issue with the above mentioned debian installation is everything is command line based for the root. I've read that in previous versions, root login to the GUI was allowed and thus all those nice graphical windows and point-n-click tools were available(midnight commander reminds me of editing autoexec.bat files in the DOS shell).

All I really want to do is be able to log in to the GUI as root so I can explore the depths of linux unrestricted by sudo(which i can't get to work in my normal account..in fact, I can't do jack in the normal account), command lines and the inability to write files to my 2.1Gig partition(I have 98mb on the root partition available to my user login).

So, remembering that:
1. I'm totally new to linux(1 week);
2. I have no privileged access with my user account(can only write to the /home/user, can't access the cd rom, su/sudo
doesn't work since the user isn't in the sudoers file...etc.);
3. I'm allergic to shell text editors that don't show thier commands(esc + : .....then what? q! @%*$&#)
4. I did manage to get the ethernet card working through root;
5. I'm stuck at 640x480 resolution;
6. I managed to install the beast to hdd using the graphical knoppix installer(the shell one didn't like me); and lastly
7. I don't *need* to learn linux but would *like* to.

I need to find a way to log in to the GUI as root so I can explore the heck out of linux, otherwise I have to figure out how to get my 12 hours back.


Thanks,

Manny

[kirol]

I think you need to edit /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc, and toggle the line that says "AllowRootLogin=false" to true. Of course you'll have to sudo to do this ;-)

[rusty]

From the KDM login screen choose "console login" then login as root and type "startx" once logged in.

HTH

[u82manny]

Great help rusty! That easily allowed me to do what I wanted and what Kirol suggested.

I think I managed to add my User account to the sudoers file but I have yet to test logging in again as I'm trying to figure out the XF86Config, specifically, where to put "800x600" for my screen resolution.

I had tried putting it in all the places it said "default"(under each color mode's field) but that proved to be a no-go. I would just go in through the control center>peripherals>monitor but the highest resolution listed is "640x480". Running the knoppix live cd with the "screen=800x600" command gives me a nice and "spacious" desktop to work on so I know 800x600 is supported by the monitor/gpu/driver.

Can anyone glean a little info about the proper location to set available screen resolutions within the XF86Config file? I'd really love to see the buttons at the bottoms of non-resizable boxes.

Thanks!

Manny

[kirol]

Running the knoppix live cd with the "screen=800x600" command gives me a nice and "spacious" desktop to work on so I know 800x600 is supported by the monitor/gpu/driver.
While in live mode, you can switch to a text-mode console by pressing (say) <Alt><F1>, then "cd /etc/X11", and copy the config file (either xorg.conf or possibly still XF86Config-4 for knoppix 5.0.1, I don't recall). The "copying to HD" part is left as an exercise ;-) You can switch back to the GUI with <Alt><F5>

The debian way would be "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg", but again your version of knoppix may predate xorg. If knoppix made you curious and re-assured you about your HW being supported, you should consider a distribution which is actually meant to be HD-installed (e.g. debian stable, mepis or sidux...). Having said that, knoppix is real fine for learning, just not very robust for long-term maintenance...