Jack it sounds to me like you have to set your BIOS to boot from CD (though I wonder how you didn't find this out when you loaded Linux). Anyways in your BIOS set your CD to be the first place it looks to boot from then put your Win CD in (can't belive I'm saying that). and reboot your computer. Carl P. On Fri, 2002-03-22 at 16:08, Jack Inyart wrote: > Thanks for the help. I ran into another problem while following the info below. I did get to the "new Unix password" and successfully typed it into the screen the same way twice. Then the message displayed was " Authentication token manipulation error" Going on from there was useless. I was able to make no more progress. Since I already have another machine that I am using to learn more about Linux, I am willing at this time to simply blow Linux out of the second machine. I have so far been unable to get it to boot from the CD. Perhaps if you have time you might give me a hint in this direction? Thanks so much Jack > ----- Original Message ----- > From: der.hans > To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 5:02 PM > Subject: Re: help with new OS > > > Am 22. Mar, 2002 schwätzte Jack Inyart so: > > > I have two machines with Linux running and I am a complete newbie to > > Lunix. Really a newbie, assume nothing about any prior knowledge. I need > > only one machine to learn more about Linux. One is running just fine, the > > other is another story. I cannot login. I do not know the password for > > this machine and need to log in to the machine since I want to install a > > different OS. Is there a way to get to the area where I can login and > > start to install the new OS? Thanks. Jack > > Generally you don't install one OS from inside another. > > Boot from the CD for the other OS and install it. If you're just wiping out > the Linux install you have you have no worries about the Linux install. > > If you want to keep the Linux install don't wipe out the partitions it's > using when install the other OS. > > To get into the Linux install to use it reboot and hold down the shift > button until you get the 'boot:' prompt from lilo. Hit twice. That > will give you a list of boot images lilo knows about. Let's say the first is > called 'Linux'. At the 'boot:' prompt enter 'Linux init=/bin/sh' and hit > . Linux should boot and give you a root shell, generally designated > by a '#' prompt. > > At the root prompt enter 'mount -o remount,rw /', then 'passwd'. The last > will prompt you for a new root password. After entering a new root passwd > enter 'mount -o remount,ro /', then 'exec /sbin/init'. At that point Linux > should finish booting and you'll be able to login as root. > > As root you can add user accounts via 'useradd -m ' replacing > '' with whatever username you want. Use lower-case alpha-numeric > characters only and no spaces. > > As root you can assign a password to the new account with 'passwd > '. > > Once you have a user account, you can logout and login as that user. Note > you can also create the user between the two mount commands. Also note that > if you just need to fix the password for an already existing user, then just > use 'passwd ' as root. > > After logging in as a normal user if you need to do something as root you > can enter 'su' and root's password when you're prompted to get another root > shell. > > root is the adminstrative account and has rights/permissions to do anything > on the system. Use it sparingly. It has the ability to let the magic smoke > out of the box :). > > User accounts don't have special privileges, so generally can't harm the > overall system. > > ciao, > > der.hans > -- > # http://home.pages.de/~lufthans/ http://www..com/ > # The only way for a woman to change a man > # is if he's wearing Depends[TM] - der.hans > > ________________________________________________ > See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail. > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss