I'm no Linux expert and I hope I didn't miss something when I read your question, but all your installations are supposed to be done as root, unless you install something like StarOffice 5.2 where it installs it to your home directory. You don't want to give your regular user root privileges if you're gonna use him for every day stuff like surfing the web and chat (especially IRC). If your regular user has root permissions and it's taken over, then you're system is toast and you need to reinstall. It's a security issue. If I read it wrong, my mistake. I'd suggest also going to #mandrake on freenode.net on irc. Read their FAQ cuz they have their way of helping people. Hope this helps.

Joe