Newbie with Pi 4 install issues.

First of all, many thanks to user NWE advising on the image file to used for my Pi 4 (4 meg RAM) LinuxCNC project to retrofit an Intelitek Prolight 3000 CNC lathe up to modern controls.

The recommended download was:

2026-01-21-raspios-lcnc-2.9.8-trixie-arm64.img

I've downloaded and flashed the img file to a 250Gig micro SD card using balenaEtcher.
The Pi booted to a Debian themed desktop with a LinuxCNC splash, and launched a "boot wizard" asking for a new username and password.  It then recommended downloading and installing s/w updates.  That done, the Pi auto-rebooted and a login dialog box was presented.  It won't accept the new username and password I had created earlier.

I'm stuck.

Any coaching on next steps??

Thanks in advance.