Aloha Luc (Belgian?):

Merci buckets for the info re: root user. That su root (su=superuser?) clears up a bit of confusion. Yes, I have tried correct capitalisation (mentioned in one of the first posts). It gave exactly the same errors. The errors seemed to be installer-related. As for the UNIX kernel... I want it so bad now (OS 9 crashed 3 x this morning whilst I was fiddling with a disk image)... if only they'd made the GUI Mac OS 9-like I'd've been ecstatic (and made the GUI responsive rather than as thick as molasses on a cold January morning)!!!

PS if you can do a remote login to "root" with telnet/ftp services that's a beautiful security hole that could be exploited. Probably most people will, by default select no password on their main account (I certainly did and I will be livid if I ever have to use a password on my computer (I'm pissed off enough that Key-Chain under OS 9 doesn't work seemlessly but actually pops-up a password request the first time I try to access a network drive (and, of course, my keychain is not protected by password)). Thus, many a root login will not have a password on it ... hehehehe... if so, Apple, you screwed up!!!

Will try "su root" next time I feel like playing with OS X.

Eric.