This chapter answers some of the most common questions about using
Red Hat Enterprise Linux that you may ask as you become more familiar with it. From
recovering forgotten passwords to troubleshooting package installation
problems, this chapter guides you step-by-step through some common tasks
to get you on your way.
14.1. Localhost Login and Password
I have installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux. After rebooting, I get a message
telling me it needs a localhost login and password. What are these?
Unless you specified a hostname for your computer, or received that
information from a network connection, your Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation names
your machine localhost.localdomain by
default.
When you get to that initial prompt, it is asking you to log in to
your system. If you created a user account with the
Setup Agent, you can log in using that
username and password. If you did not create a user account, then you
can log in as the super user, also known as
root. The root password is the system password
you assigned during installation.
It is highly recommended that you create at least one user account
for regular use of your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. You can create a new user after
logging in as root with the User Manager
graphical tool or the useradd shell prompt
utility. For more information, refer to Section 1.6 Creating a User Account.
