The first thing Linux requires you to do is log-in. You need to enter the name of an account, followed by the password for that account. All Linux distributions setup an account called root during installation. The root account is special in that root has the absolute power to create, destroy, and do anything.

Because being logged-in as root is both dangerous to the well-being of your Linux installation, and unnecessary (as you'll soon find out), your first port of call is to create a user account.

Although new distros like Red Hat 6.1 have started to create both the root account and a user account during installation, we'll ignore that fact since many distros don't. And you still need to know how to create more user accounts -- should you need them.

Even if you created a user account during installation, only root can create new accounts. So the first step is to log-in as root. To log-in, simply enter the name of the account, followed by the account's password:

localhost login: root
Password: _

Don't worry about nothing being echoed to the screen when you enter the password. Linux is very security-conscious. Even though I personally favour asterixes (*), the creator of the login program felt it necessary to achieve maximum security.

Unlike Windows, everything in Linux is case-sensitive. The user root is not the user Root. Always remember this.

To create an account, enter:

adduser accountname

...replacing accountname with the name you want to give the account.

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Now give this new account a password by entering:

passwd accountname

...which will prompt you for a password and then again to verify the password.

Unless security is an issue, ignore any "BAD PASSWORD" message that may appear, and continue regardless.

To log-out of an account, and return to the 'login' screen, press Ctrl+D. Do this now to log-out of the root account, and log-in to your newly created user account.