Need help with Linux Mint.

[I Shooter]

I installed Linux Mint on an old computer that had ME on it. The first problem I had was I didn't give it a password ( In Windows I never use a password.) and now it wont let me in. I plan to reload it and give it a password that I will remember. The next problem when loading the system it asked for internet information that I didn't understand. When I load Windows on a PC at the end I just put in the Earthlink disk and do as I am told. How do you set up internet in Linux Mint? As you can tell I am new to Linux and would like to learn how to use it. I know that I can get drivers from Intel to make the mother board work. Will Linux Mint play DVDs or do I have to load other programs for that. I don't know any thing about this stuff. I need all the help I can get with this stuff. Thanks for your time and information that you people give so freely.

[banjo67xxx]

a) The Linux Mint forums http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=24306&p=142114 say that you can use sudo with your oridinary user password, and then you've got 5 minutes to do what you want. So I guess you could set the root password with passwd root after using sudo

b) As for Earthlink, I've never heard of it. I presume its the name of your ISP and they gave you a setup CD. If your lucky then you've got a broadband router which that CD has already configured for you, and if you're even luckier your router is setup for DHCP.

You could just try using the Linux Mint admin tools to configure your NIC to use DHCP, but if its more complex you might to to boot from Windows again and look at your NIC's TCP/IP Properties, and then boot back to Linux Mint and set the NIC up in the same way.

c) For legal reasons you'll have to download and install libdvdcss seperately before you can play any copyright DVD. There's no law against playing DVDs you've paid for on a Linux machine, but there's debate about whether or not the program that makes it possible could be deemed a copyright circumvention device under DCMA law, so everyone plays it safe and leaves you to install it for yourself.

[I Shooter]

Now see this is what I was getting at. I use windows programs that you point and click, or type what you wont to do. I don't know what sudo is. I don't have a router or broad band connection. I don't know what DHCP is. I will go the link you gave and see what I can find out. Thank you much for your time.

[cricket2030]

Sudo just allows for you to perform admin tasks, otherwise it will just block you out to prevent any damaging changes to the system.

The linux mint forums are a good place for the info, you can also try the Ubuntu forums.