Logging into the Fedora GNOME Desktop

When you first boot from a Fedora Linux installation you will most likely be presented with a Login Screen similar to the one shown in the following figure. If, on the other hand, you have booted from the Fedora Live CD, the first thing you will see after the system has loaded will the the desktop which is described in the following section of this chapter.

Assuming you are booting from an installed Fedora system, the login screen should appear as follows:

This screen has a number of options and text fields that give the user some level of control over what happens next:

• User Icons - For each user with an account on the system, an icon will appear next to their login name. Clicking on this icon will begin the login process for that user and prompt for a password.

• Username: - An alternative to clicking on the user icon involves entering the user login name in this field. Once the name has been entered, press the Enter key to display the Password prompt.

• Password: - This input field only appears after a user name has been selected from the list, or typed into the Username: field. Once the password has been entered, press the Enter key to initiate the login process.

• Language - Invokes a list of alternative languages supported by the desktop environment. If your preferred language is not the current default language, select it from the extensive list and click on Change Language to apply the selection.

• Restart - Reboots the system. If this option is selected the system will display a confirmation window verifying the system is to be restarted before doing so.

• Shut Down - Shuts the system down to its powered off state. As with the Reboot option, confirmation will be sought before the shutdown proceeds.

• Session - Allows selection of the type of session to be started on successful login. If you only installed the GNOME desktop then this is the only option available. If you have other desktops installed (such as KDE) these options will be listed for selection. The desktop also allows users to configure and save their own sessions so that specified applications start automatically each time the user logs in. If user configured sessions have been saved by the user they will appear in this list. For more details of how to create sessions read the Fedora Desktop Sessions and User Switching.

Assuming you have now logged successfully into a Fedora GNOME Desktop session, and have a screen in front of you similar to the one shown above we can begin to explore the desktop in more detail by reading A Guided Tour of the Fedora GNOME Desktop.