Great info, A.J.G. Some questions for you (or whoever wants to answer/comment):

Re: step 1, to run the root shell: Why would I want to run that ugly thing? Green fonts, and no apparent method to scroll the window back. If I was packaging the distro, I'd yank that menu option and instead just learn to type su then the root password in the regular shell window which is more pleasing to the eye and more controllable in my opinion. (Speaking of yanking menu options, I'd yank quite a few menu options from Knoppix actually to help unclutter things a bit)

Re: steps 2 thru 4: Nevermind the fact that I live less than 15 miles from Redmond, I personally like doing things in "windows" and would much rather use Kpackage to do all this than to visit the command prompt. My take, open for debate of course, is to get Linux newbies comfortable first with the GUI-based tools before getting too involved with shells, where it can be frustrating trying to learn and type the correct commands.