Problem with Terminal?

[Ana_00]

Please note: I'm pretty slow when it comes to computers, I'll need simple plain english~

I'm extremely new to Linux, as in within the last 20hours, I figured out how to get to the Terminal(go me trying to do things on my own) and I finally found it~

So as all the sites etc etc said, i typed "su -" and "password:" came up, however when i go to type my password it won't let me. the keyboard isn't locking because I can easily hit enter. However nothing I try seems to make it work.

Ontop of that, I'm not completely sure but I believe from reading(half-assedly mind you) I cannot use .exe programs until I can get ndiswrapper(and/or the driver utility program(s) to work, so my attempts at wireless networking have failed(This is on a laptop, so a wireless networking card(Linksys WPC53GS) I 'activated it' however it won't connect to the hub, which seems to be a common mishap, that I can't fix until I can 'root' through the terminal?)~

-_-; Please forgive any typos, it's 5a.m. for me ;p and please laugh at my 'noobness' if you want, but also please help m(-_-)m, thanks in advance.

[ccrvic]

Originally Posted by Ana_00

So as all the sites etc etc said, i typed "su -" and "password:" came up, however when i go to type my password it won't let me.

I'm sure it will let you. It just won't display what you're typing - this is so that people can't look over your shoulder & read your password!

Originally Posted by Ana_00

However nothing I try seems to make it work.

Are you sure you're typing the right password? You've got one password for your user account, you'll have another one for your "root" account. They're not interchangeable.

Originally Posted by Ana_00

I believe from reading(half-assedly mind you) I cannot use .exe programs

.exe *usually* means an executable programme built for DOS/Windows. You're not running DOS or Windows any more - so you haven't got the environment to run them...

Programmes in *nix don't have to have any particular filename extension - if you write something called "fred", the executable will generally be called "fred", not "fred.exe". This does make life simpler - unless you're indoctrinated into the habit of always looking for a .exe :-)

Vic.