Well this is a complete newbie [for linux] speaking. Can someone please tell me how to restart and shutdown the X server and logon to the linux console [with X completely turned off]. Last night i was installing my video card driver ( nVidia ) and i had to logon to the linux console.. (not X server) and it really gave a hard time cause it took me almost 1 hour to figure out that there''s something called "inittab" file where you have to change the run-level to 3 and restart the machine. This would boot linux in console mode and only then i could install my drivers ...(phew!). Is there any way to change display modes ( resolution and blah blah ) without restarting X.

ctrl-alt-backspace disables the x server. Or at least it is suppose to, on my linux machine it just resets the x server and I havent bothered figuring out why it doesnt turn off because it doesnt bother me.

"I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--Voltaire

good tutorial - http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/

You don''t really have to shutdown the X server to install the drivers, it just reduces the odds that you''ll run into unexpected behaviour, which you shouldn''t anyway (you do have to restart the X server afterward, of course).

A quick way to get to a terminal is to hit CTRL+ALT+F1 (you can change the F you use, normally F1 through F6 are terminals, with F7+ being X sessions). From a terminal, killing X can normally be done by killing any login manager (xdm, gdm, or kdm, normally; I do this with /etc/init.d/gdm stop, in Debian). No need to mess with inittab for something so simple .

quote: Original post by cmptrgear
ctrl-alt-backspace disables the x server. Or at least it is suppose to, on my linux machine it just resets the x server and I havent bothered figuring out why it doesnt turn off because it doesnt bother me.

Your login manager is setup to automatically restart the X server.

quote: Original post by cmptrgear
ctrl-alt-backspace disables the x server. Or at least it is suppose to, on my linux machine it just resets the x server and I havent bothered figuring out why it doesnt turn off because it doesnt bother me.

"I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--Voltaire

Edit: Null And Void beat me to it.

[Cyberdrek | the last true sorcerer | Spirit Mage - mutedfaith.com][ Administrator & WebMaster GuLSE]

[edited by - cyberdrek on July 17, 2003 2:29:40 PM]

CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE does not disable the X server, it kills the process .

And as Null and Void already mentioned, the easiest way to go into a console is by pressing the CTRL+ALT+F(1-6). Then you can log in and stop your login manager with:

/etc/init.d/xdm stop 

, if you really want to.
Killing the X server/login manager however will most probably just restart it. Most distributions nowadays have it configured so that the X server respawns automatically when its process is killed.

You don''t even need to do that. just edit XF86Config from inside X. then restart the X server (usually just log out and back in again)

If your editing breaks it, then it (gdm at least) will stop after trying to start X like 5 times. and you''ll be looking at a console. then fix it, and killall -HUP gdm (or whatever dm you''re using)

Well, we were all new to it once..

inittab is used for the boot-time default runlevel. The run-levels include single-user mode, multi-user mode, and X11 mode, with the numbers varying per distribution, but generally single-user mode is runlevel 3.

To switch between runlevels without rebooting, however, simply (as root) type "init " where is the number. In order to get out of the X runlevel, type:

init 3

In some distributions you will need to kill X and the display manager as well (the command for that will depend on your display manager).

killall X

to re-log back into the X server for testing, without getting involved with the display manager, simply type

startx




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