maybe will be accepted to create a new user...if works chose admin permissions for the new user

I'll have to try figuring that out in the morning. My head is splitting now and I am calling it quits for the night.

Thanks everyone for all of your help.

Greg

Couldn't sleep, so I decided to play some more. I saw something called Calife, that works as a substitution for sudo, so I read up on it. Although Calife didn't work on my machine, it gave me an idea for using sudo. I would used sudo to change my password to itself, basically not really changing it, in the hopes that it would let me change the root password. When that didn't seem to work, I did sudo by itself and read through the options. I tried the sudo passwd command with -u root, so it knew what I was trying to do. It said the password was validated? (I think it said validated). When I logged out and tried using my password for root, it actually worked.

Thanks again everyone!

One of the things that has made it difficult - at least for me - in trying to assist you is that you jumped a release on me. The current stable version of Ubuntu is 10.10 (codenamed Maverick Meerkat) and LinuxMint is 10 (codenamed Julia). If you are using Natty Narwhal 11.04, you are using a pre-release version of the next Ubuntu. As best I can tell, it is in alpha1 release, which means that it is rather unstable in regards to packages, dependencies, and the scripts that pull everything together.

While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I would not have suggested that you choose a pre-release version to install, for the reason you mentioned...can cause loss of hair and sleep.

aahh so my Merkraat is still up to date
(i know time can go fast but i was surprised that 6 mounth were already passed away...)

That's what i had delivered on Disk Ubuntu is 10.10 -Maverick Meerkat

Sorry my bad.
You need to login as user first.
Gerard.

I just went to the site and this is what it had. Because this didn't say it was pre-release, and it didn't list any other version, I thought this was the released version. I had no way of knowing. I will keep running updates, so hopefully it will get more stable.

well...it is not even a beta version weird you didn't see warning or pointer to the stable version

Not sure what suggest, to start with linux i will prefer a stable version, or even a edgy version as that suggested by Griatch that even if edgy it is already well tested

Also in case you need help, not here but on the Ubuntu forum, you may risk to get little pun and sarcastic remark because users of pre-alpha releases are supposed to be quite experienced, so whatever you will ask you may get the standard reply
"first unistall and reinstall a stable version, then if the problem remain check the Faq and/or the official doc"...if not something more corrosive

Thanks much. I am finally getting things working and have set a separate password (that I selected) for root. I suspect that I may reformat and install the stable release.

Should you decide to do this (reformat & install stable), you may want to double check you are at the right location to get the current stable version: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
On this page you have basically 2 choices. First choice: You can choose 10.10 (meerkat), which is the most recent stable release and is supported through April 2012; or you can choose 10.04 (lucid) which is the most recent long-term support (LTS) version, supported through April 2013.

Second choice: 32-bit or 64-bit release, based on your cpu.

As far as I know, neither version has the most recent Gimp release (can somebody fact-check this for me?). However, It is only mildly painful to build more recent versions, as Linux is compile friendly....

I'm sure that the gang here will be more than happy to help you through any rough parts, as am I.

to complete what Bob wrote last stable gimp is available on getdeb (i already posted the link ),same for inkscape blender etc
More even if are not in the official repositories many if not most sw including here last version of gimp plugin (from liquid resize to gmic, mathmap etc ) offer on their side binary for Ubuntu since is by far the most used distro.
binary that are just ready to be used (gmic pluginas ) or (in this case you see a .deb extension as for the gmic command line version ) with a double click

even build the very last 2.7 it is not too hard (because you may get step by step how to and because steps are not much)

both 10.04 and 10,10 are very stable (i switched to 10.10 because had a better support out of the box for my wireless )

about compiling the first time you will have to download a lot of apps because as default what needed to compile is not installed but only optional

I'm just so torn about backing everything off the Linux machine, before formatting it. I moved things to the machine, a little at a time with a jump drive. I spent hours on it and now feel so frustrated with the thought of undoing it and redoing it.

i can give you a tip to avoid any similar problem in the future, take about 10 minuts more but may save hours of work and cursing_

Don't create a single partition for everything ,meaning OS and data and document but 2

One for the OS+sw , you may call the other "document" so is clear for what is

the first will be as usual for Ubuntu for the other use NTFS

you will be able to access to "document" on the fly from linux, as if was on a external HD but more quickly
Once done you may reformat OS+sw without need to back up ...

This will come handy also when or if you will decide to update the OS to a new major release (as the future natty):
because ,and this is a warning, Ubuntu always prompt for automatic upgrade, but ALAS automatic upgrade seldom works ( Let say that more you customize your Ubuntu, less the chances to avoid disaster with automatic upgrade to new versions) usually result will be so buggy and unstable to force to reformat and make a new clean install

But once you get used to save only in your "Document" partition back up will be no more needed
(well you know do constant back up is always good because HD may die without warning, i just mean that would be no more needed extra backup before reformat )

PS i suggested NTFS for the doc partition because may be read from any linux OS ,including live CD, and from XP, Vista and 7
I saved in my "DOC" partition also a copy of everything i have in wine, more gimp scripts and alike

Thanks PC! That is a brilliant idea!

Edit: I see that you and PC are already discussing this, but here's my $.02.

Greg, consider this a learning experience...(okay, I'll come to NJ so you can hit me)

I think I posted this in another thread, regarding partitions. It bears repeating, I think, especially if anyone is considering a move to Linux. When you are setting up your partitions, you will want at least three:
/ (root) this is where the OS is put during the installation. I suggest at least 15GB.
/home this is where all of your documents, user files, profile configurations, downloads, photos, etc. will be stored.
swap generally you will want the size of this to be at least equal to the amount of RAM installed in the system.
For example, my main hard drive is 500GB, partitioned into three parts as described above, and the (root) and /home partitions are formatted using the ext4 file system. I have 2GB of RAM, but chose to allocate 4GB for the swap in case I buy more RAM.This set up means that my /home partition is H U G E, but I have plenty of room to download all sorts of odds and ends. Also, my partitions appear on the drive in the order above, with the (root) and swap at opposite "ends."

The reasons for doing this are first, if something happens so that the OS section (root) gets mangled, either by me or broken upgrade, my documents and other personal stuff is intact and usable. Second, if down the road I decide to completely change distros, I would only have to format and install the OS in the (root) partition, leaving my documents intact in their own partition.

But now the swap would be a partition, but how would the system access it?

I agree with Photocomix, although I would recommend the normal partition names: / and /home (and swap, this should always be a separate partition, Windows is crazy to not do this) since this is also what you usually refer to in tutorials and help forums.
You can even remove/reinstall your entire operating system that way without having to fear loosing any of your personal data in /home.
.
Griatch

EDIT: I see Bob caught me to it.

I have 10.10 downloading as I type. It will take a while, so I have it going in the background. Now to find the program for the multiple partitions.

Correct Bob & Griatch but i simplified in my post , considering all that 3 as the standard Linux OS+ Sw partition because all 3 are needed by any Unix OS
and also because all 3 should be reformatted in case of radical change of OS, i.e to change from Ubuntu to Slackware)

so , to use the correct numeration my suggestion was to create a 4° partition, and for that to use NTFS (NTFS if you have another Win computer so that can be accessed by any OS)

The advantage is that this Extra partition will be safe...Name was just to clear the function, once you see when reformatting Linux a partition in NTFS will be clear that is not to be touched