On Monday 04 November 2002 21:32, ZephyrQ wrote:
First, the problem. Due to a glitch/powersurge/young-un kicking the case (I'm not sure which) I lost my ability to go into X. [...] So, now, the questions.
1. Is there a key-press sequence I can use to bypass/turn-off the graphical login before it comes up?
During the lilo or grub boot sequence, you usually have about 5 seconds to press "a key" to stop the automatic startup [unless you've set the delay to zero...] This is symbolized by a colored bar (or bars, depending on the screen layout) that grows or shrinks (again depending on version -- seems like SuSE changes it every release "because they can") Once you've pressed a key to stop the boot process, you'll notice the "boot command" line at the bottom/top of the screen [again, versions...] which probably reads "linux". Depending on your hardware, it may have "other options" included [such as "ide-scsi=/dev/hdx" if you have a CD-writer] From here, type the number "3", so at the very least the prompt reads: boot=linux 3 This overrides the default "runlevel" and forces the system to start at "runlevel 3", which is the text-only runlevel. *my guess* is that during the subsequent (re)installation of the system, the "default" runlevel got set to 5, which corresponds to the graphical runlevel. This is buried somewhere under /etc/sysconfig, and there are some SuSE specific tools for changing it -- if you want to go "directly" to the source, look for the file /etc/inittab -- this is what the suseconfig editor (runlevel editor) edits and what the system startup script(s) reads to determine "how to start your system" :) Now, if you're a little slow on the initial keystrokes (or you simply don't want to "needlessly reboot a running system"), you can press CTL-ALT-FN1 (function key 1) This *should* take you back to the initial "pseudo-graphical" text only startup screen. CTL-ALT-fn2 (through 5 or 6) gives you a traditional white-on-black straight text mode only screen -- these are "virtual terminals", which most people don't even know exist. From any of these virtual terminals, log on as root and issue the command: init 3 that does the same thing as booting with "linux 3" -- namely, it switches the system to runlevel 3 [an alternate is to use the command "telinit 3", which does the same thing but *might* be cleaner...] From any of these "straight text" virtual terminals, CTL-ALT-FN7 takes you back to the "graphical" (X) screen. You might also notice on your suse/KDE "start button" menu an entry that reads "start new session" -- this starts a NEW session without actually logging you off of the current one, and you'll find it can be switched to with the sequence CTL-ALT-FN8 (and the next would use fn9...)
2. Am I missing anything in the settings to cause these lock-ups? The new NVidia drivers worked well for 3 months but now are costing me *way* too much time.
dunno -- I just got an ATI card :)
3. Is there any way I can get my Yast1 back? Yast2, while slick and pretty, doesn't allow me to abort to a prompt (to fix problems) and hides too many things.
Umm, no -- SuSE has an explanantion in their help database that boils down to "it was too much work maintaining a separate text-only interface", so they've modularized yast2 to be "user-interface independant" at the back end and uses ncurses or qt as the front end. *if* you start yast2 in a text-only environment (and have ncurses installed) you can get that "slick text interface", but it still hides too many details (especially the 8.1 online update...)
4. Finally, what could I have done to streamline this process initially? The initial problem seemed to be in a /tmp/lock* file--could I have just deleted the /tmp directory?
Thanx.