> I’m really confused.
you are not nearly as confused as i am…why? because:
when you select OpenSUSE (that first choice) on the first boot screen,
the next thing you should see is a graphical user interface
(GUI)…you, know kinda like Windows[tm]…with buttons and a pretty
backround…like that screen shot you posted showing Dolphin…(by the
way, how did you get that screen shot, by booting using the SECOND
option “Failsafe Opensuse”)
THAT pretty GUI is what should come up when you select OpenSUSE!
since it does not, you have not quite completed the initial install…
i’ll get back to that in a moment…but first i wanna tell you that
you actually HAVE two different ‘people’ on your computer…
you have a NORMAL USER named jcsullivan who has the user permissions
needed to read and write files in jcsullivan’s /home directory…ONLY!
yes, he (you) can also launch some programs (like Firefox) but cannot
preform ‘system administrator’ duties like (for example) shut down the
firewall, or change the firewall so a cracker can come in and steal
jcsullivan’s bank password…
the ‘person’ who has the power to make system wide changes is name
root (or superuser)…
until Ubuntu (and then openSUSE) started trying to help Windows[tm]
folks transition to Linux there was always required a password for
each user (even if only one) and a DIFFERENT password for root…then,
somebody decided that was tooo complicated so they wrote the install
script to allow both the installing user (which is YOU: jcsullivan)
AND root to have the same password…so, even though there is only one
of you on the computer you have TWO jobs: one is to be user with the
name of “jcsullivan” , and the other is to be the system
administrator, with the name of “root”…
jcsullivan can wipe out ALL of his own files…just delete all of
them, and the basic operating system will still function perfectly (if
it did so before) because jcsullivan canNOT delete or change system
files or settings…
however, if you log in as root you can delete the entire contents of
the machine with little trouble…
with me so far?
ok…just to put mind at ease a little: when you got to that black
screen that just said “linux-s3cg login:” you were NOT logging into
Gnome, but rather into the basic operating system…SO it is perfectly
OKAY to become root in that non-GUI environment…
so, when you select the first opensuse option and get dumped at the
non-GUI prompt, when when it says “Login” it first wants to know the
name of the user, so type jcsullivan and press enter, then
type in your password and the “prompt” will change
from: linux-s3cg login:
to: jcsullivan@linux-s3cg:~>
showing that jcsullivan is using this terminal on the machine named
lunux-s3cg and is in his on home directory…see that “~” it is
shorthand for “home directory” and you will have signed in as YOU, a
regular, restricted access and power’s USER…
then, to “become root” you type
su -
which tells the system to Switch User [su] and without naming another
user, it is assumed that root wants to log in, and the system again
asks for “password”, and you must enter root’s password (yes, in your
case it is the same…but, someday you gonna learn how to change it
and make the two different, and very hard to guess the root password
(that keeps the bad guys out)
THEN, the prompt will change again,
from: jcsullivan@linux-s3cg:~>
to: linux-s3cg ~ #
when you see that “#” in a linux prompt you KNOW that root is signed
in, so BE CAREFUL cause you have ALL the power, to fix or destroy…
NOW, while you are signed in as root, type:
fdisk -l
press enter and send the output back to this thread…THEN, we will
try to get you a normal boot to a normal Gnome screen and get that
second hard drive sorted out for you…
while you are waiting for me (or hopefully someone else will drop in)
and continue this, do some reading about your new operating
system…you have a lot to learn…
patience…it is worth it…believe me.
–
nom de plume