Beginning your Session

Identifying Yourself

To log in the system, you need to know and supply both your login name and your password. The former identifies you while the latter protects your data stored on the computer. If you did your own installation, you already have your login name and password. If not, you must ask the person who installed your computer to help you out urgently!

You are currently in front of the following display (Figure 5.1). Of course, it appears slightly different as the user names displayed next to the image icons are probably different.

Figure 5.1. The Login Window

The Login Window

The login procedure takes place in four simple steps:

  1. Click on the icon corresponding to your login name.

  2. Type your secret password once that field is displayed.

    Warning

    You will notice that the letters do not appear while you type them in the password field. They are replaced by little stars (*), in order to avoid any other person from seeing your secret password. This is a common computer behavior whenever you enter a password. Because of this, make sure you type the correct keys since you can not check them visually. 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. As you can see in the Session Type field, the default environment is the last one you used. You can change it by simply choosing another one from the pull-down menu. If this is the first time that you have logged in, e.g. immediately after the installation, no default environment has yet been defined and the Mandrake First Time Wizard wizard will pop up. Please refer to the section called “The First Time Wizard” for more information.

    Figure 5.2. The Pull-Down Session Type List

    The Pull-Down Session Type List

    Note

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

  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 Mandrake Linux 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: booting directly in your favorite desktop environment. This feature is known as auto-login and can be activated as follows:

  • Launch the Mandrake Control Center choosing Configuration->Configure your computer from the main menu or clicking on the Mandrake Control Center icon on your desktop.

  • Click on the first section (Boot) then on the Drakboot icon.

  • Select the Yes I want autologin with this (user, desktop) option. You must select the user name and the default desktop environment to be used by choosing from the corresponding pull-down menus in the lower part of the window.

Warning

Be careful with this option as no password will be asked for, hence anybody can access your system. We suggest that you use this option only if no one but you can access your computer, or if only non-sensitive data is stored in it.

The First Time Wizard

If this is the first time you have accessed your Mandrake Linux system, you will encounter the Mandrake First Time Wizard (Figure 5.3). It will help you to set up the most basic configuration options. We recommend that you complete all its steps. This will possibly save you some tedious work in the future.

First of all, you will be asked to choose an appearance for your working environment. The different choices will affect the way files, objects and windows are displayed on the screen, and the way you will interact with them, but it is important to know that they all share the same functionalities. Hence you will be able to do the same operations and use the same programs whatever graphic environment you choose: preferring one over another is just a matter of personal taste. The default choice is KDE, but please don't be afraid to try out the other choices once you feel more confident with the system. You will be able to change your graphical environment later by using the Session type pull-down menu in the login window.

Figure 5.3. The First Time Wizard

The First Time Wizard

Click on the arrow button beside the Choose desktop field to see the available choices. Some of them also offer more than one variation. Besides KDE, another very popular choice is GNOME.

In the next step, you can correctly configure your e-mail and newsgroup applications. You should fill in the text input fields with the data provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Finally you can create a personal MandrakeClub account, which will give you instant access to many valuable online services offered by MandrakeSoft, such as special commercial software downloads (complete with automatic download and install procedures), dedicated multilingual forums, the possibility to vote for your favorite software packages to be included in the Mandrake Linux distribution, special discounts, and more. Your Mandrake Linux package includes a one-month trial MandrakeClub account, so that you can evaluate the many available services and then later extend your account if you like their features (and we are sure you will!).

Moreover, if you already have a MandrakeClub account, Mandrake First Time Wizard will also help you configure your system to allow easy download and installation of special updates from the MandrakeClub web site, directly using our user-friendly Software Manager. Please remember that e-mail addresses and user names are unique on MandrakeClub, so you will not be able to open a trial account if you already are a subscriber. Once you have made your choices click on the Next button.

Once the Mandrake First Time Wizard introduction is completed, your new working environment will be displayed.

Some Notes About Security

It is important to assimilate a few security notions in regards with your Mandrake Linux box:

  • Do not write down your password on any piece of paper (a post-it for example) that can be seen by anyone.

  • Always make sure your password is complex enough to keep people from guessing it, but simple enough for you to remember it! Try to use a mix of numbers and letters with mixed case for your passwords.

    Tip

    It is a good idea to think of a sentence or phrase you can remember easily. Then, take the first letters and/or numbers of every word in the sentence to form a password. For example, the sentence: “I was born on September 10th 1973” would make up the password: IwboS101973, which is easy to remember (it is your birth date after all...) and fairly hard to guess.

  • If you have a permanent connection to the Internet, and you do not want to use your computer for some time, it is better to close it completely, as crackers could be able to use your machine. That is, do not just log out of it, but shut it down (power off). This can be done using the Halt button in the login window.

The list above is not extensive at all. There are many things you can do in order to make your system more secure. You should particularly read the section called “DrakSec: Securing Your Machine” in the Starter Guide.