4. Beginning your Session

We assume that you are sitting in front of a running Mandrakelinux computer which, when turned on, automatically displays the graphical login screen. If this is not the case and you are facing a black screen with something like:

Mandrakelinux release 10.2 (Limited Edition) for i586
Kernel 2.6.10-3mdk on an i686 / tty1
machine_name login:

with a flashing cursor, type your user name (as defined during installation or by your system administrator), then your password. You should now be logged in. Now type startx and the graphical interface will be launched (KDE by default, see Chapter 7, Using KDE). If this doesn't work, please refer to Section 5.3, “X Doesn't Start”. In order to automatically start your system in graphical mode, refer to Section 2, “Controlling the Graphical Configuration”.

4.1. Identifying Yourself

You are currently in front of the following display (see Figure 5.1, “The Login Window”). To log into the system, you need to supply your password.

[Note]Note

If there is more than one user defined on your system, you will just have to supply first your login name, selecting it from the list, and then your password.

Figure 5.1. The Login Window

The Login Window

The login procedure takes place in a few simple steps:

  1. Click on the icon corresponding to your login name, if needed.

  2. Type your secret password[2]

  3. Choose your favorite graphical environment from the Session type pull-down menu[3]. The session you last chose is selected by default, but if this is the first time that you have logged in, the default environment is KDE.

  4. Finally click on the Login button to begin your session. Be patient! It may take a few seconds before your desktop is ready to be used.

If you are the only user of your new Mandrakelinux system, and you are annoyed by having to type your login name and password every time you start a new session, there is a way to avoid this step: by booting directly into your favorite desktop environment. This feature is known as auto-login (see Section 1, “Configuring the Login Mode”).

[Warning]Warning

Be careful with this option as no password will be asked for, therefore anybody can access your system.



[2] The actual password will not be displayed and will be replaced by little stars (*). Remember: passwords under GNU/Linux are case sensitive, which means that if your password is Very_Secret and you type Very_secret, access will be denied!

[3] This step is optional and allows you to choose a specific graphical environment. While we encourage you to try the various available choices so you can find the one you prefer, we strongly suggest you start with either KDE.