I have answered all these posts in order as they appeared on todays digest. Thank you all those who have offered help advice and suggestions. I think the basic problem may very be with the operator rather that the Soft or Hardware, I will however persevere!

Also what does your /etc/hosts look like? Are you missing localhost by any chance?

No it looked like this: 127.0.0.1 localhost I then added the line: 127.0.0.1 thomashobbes.enlightenment.net

Some of those log in things want the root password in the password box before Reboot and Shutdown will work. Not sure which is needed.

They wanted the root password but it didn't work even having been given it.

Which installer are you using? and where did it come from? just asking as Sarge isn't stable yet and is still in development, so it could be you have a broken or buggy installer.

Browsing disk 1 shows the installer as /install/2.6, I bought them from Steve McIntyre I don't think its the disks, its me as this seems to be exactly the same problem I had with Woody, I tried Sarge as I didn't want to go back a graphics card to get it to work with that version of X but I have now reached the point where I'll try one more re-installation and then try Woody with the previous graphics card.