Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Amin]

Hi,

Basically, you need to edit your ``/etc/inittab'' file, and
change your default runlevel to 3 (it's currently 5).  What
this means to you is: change the line that says

id:5:initdefault:

to

id:3:initdefault:

This will be a simple search-and-replace operation from any
text editor.

But you need to be able to access the file to be able to
edit it, and you can't do that when you're stuck in a messy
GUI.  You need to access it from a text-based command
prompt.  This is actually quite possible, and it gets easier
each time you do it:

1.  Boot from your Linux installation CD.  Go through the
    preliminary steps of the installation (nothing that
    involves overwriting anything), then press [Alt]-[F3].
    I think you need to press the [Alt] button that's on the
    left side of your keyboard.  This will put you into a
    command prompt (probably ``bash'') with full system
    access.

2.  Mount the filesystem that contains your Linux
    installation's ``/etc/inittab'' file.  To do this, you
    need to determine two things: where to mount the
    filesystem, and what partition to mount.  Don't get
    disheartened!  The first requirement is very easy: make
    a directory ``/mnt'':

    cd /
    mkdir mnt
    cd mnt

    So now you're in the directory ``/mnt''.  Now you need
    to find out the partition your Linux installation is in;
    probably ``/dev/hda1'' (since you implied that Linux is the
    only OS on the PC).  So mount it:

    mount -t auto /dev/hda1 .

    Notice that there actually was a space followed by a dot
    on the command line above.  Now you should be able to
    access all the files in your installation, including
    ``/etc/inittab''.  Note that because you've mounted it
    onto a temporary Linux system right now, this file will,
    for you, actually be ``/mnt/etc/inittab''.

3.  Now edit said file.  Most likely you'll only have the
    ``vi'' editor available to you, so invoke it thusly
    (assuming that you're still in /mnt):

    vi etc/inittab

    You should see the critical line I mentioned earlier
    somewhere near the top of the screen.  Move the text
    editing cursor to it using the arrow keys, and move the
    cursor so that it covers the ``5'' in that line.  Now,
    to replace the ``5'' with a ``3''.  Type

    r3

    and the replacement takes place.  Now to save and exit.
    Type

    ZZ

    and you are returned to the command prompt.

4.  Now you must unmount your Linux installation's
    filesystem and restart the computer.  Type these
    commands:

    cd /
    umount /mnt

    Then take out your installation CD and simply hit your
    system unit's reset button.

HTH,
Yawar Amin
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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Charlotte Miller]

On Sat, 10 May 2003, Amin wrote:
>
> But you need to be able to access the file to be able to
> edit it, and you can't do that when you're stuck in a messy
> GUI.  You need to access it from a text-based command
> prompt.  This is actually quite possible, and it gets easier
> each time you do it:
>
These instructions sound rather convoluted.  Why would this individual
need to boot from an installation CD just to edit a file?  I assume one
needs root priviledges to edit /etc/innitab, but wouldn't it be alot
easier to open a console, then su to root, then invoke a word processor
and open the file with it?  Or invoke MC from that root console, navigate
to the file using it, then use MC's editor to edit the runlevel argument?
Please clarify on the need to do the editing from other bootable media.

Thanks, James

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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Chuck Gelm]

Howdy:

 ...and along this line of thought;
couldn't one use 'vi' or 'joe' from a console.
Perhaps even a one line 'sed' command.
:-|

HTH, Chuck

Charlotte Miller wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 10 May 2003, Amin wrote:
> >
> > But you need to be able to access the file to be able to
> > edit it, and you can't do that when you're stuck in a messy
> > GUI.  You need to access it from a text-based command
> > prompt.  This is actually quite possible, and it gets easier
> > each time you do it:
> >
> These instructions sound rather convoluted.  Why would this individual
<snip>
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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Ray Olszewski]

Whether "Amin" gave convoluted instructions is not the first concern. First 
ask whether he gave correct advice.

I did not see the original posting, and I can't find it anywhere. Amin's 
response does not indicate whether the original posting mentioned the Linux 
distro involved, and he does not do so. And Amin's advice is not 
distro-neutral; not all distros use the runlevel setting to launch xdm (or 
gdm). Debian, for example, uses a script in /etc/init.d that gets called 
from runlevel 2 (which it uses as its default runlevel).

That said, whatever change is needed can almost certainly be done without a 
boot/init from a rescue disk or CD. Just log in via xdm (of gdm), open an 
xterm, su to root, make the needed changes as root, and reboot the system. 
The needed changes might be ...

         edit /etc/inittab to change the default runlevel from 5 to 2 or 3
         edit /etc/rc2.d to remove the symlink S99xdm

... or maybe something else that is distro specific.

Amin made reference to a "messy GUI" in his reply. Since I never saw the 
original message, and he did not quote any of it, it is possible that the 
original questioner indicated some reason why he or she could not actually 
use the GUI interface to open an xterm (or possibly even to log in). In 
that case ... typically, distros that run xdm also open a hidden console on 
/dev/tty1, which one can access by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 when the xdm 
display is active. You can then log in, make any needed changes, and reboot.

Finally, if even that does not work, at the lilo prompt (assuming we're 
talking about an install that uses lilo), instead of accepting the default 
load, you can usually enter "linux single" to boot/init into single-user 
mode with a console rather than X presented.

Only after trying these options would I turn to using a rescur disk or CD, 
as Amin advices.

At 01:29 PM 5/10/2003 +0000, Charlotte Miller wrote:
>On Sat, 10 May 2003, Amin wrote:
> >
> > But you need to be able to access the file to be able to
> > edit it, and you can't do that when you're stuck in a messy
> > GUI.  You need to access it from a text-based command
> > prompt.  This is actually quite possible, and it gets easier
> > each time you do it:
> >
>These instructions sound rather convoluted.  Why would this individual
>need to boot from an installation CD just to edit a file?  I assume one
>needs root priviledges to edit /etc/innitab, but wouldn't it be alot
>easier to open a console, then su to root, then invoke a word processor
>and open the file with it?  Or invoke MC from that root console, navigate
>to the file using it, then use MC's editor to edit the runlevel argument?
>Please clarify on the need to do the editing from other bootable media.




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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Amin]

On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 08:42:05AM -0700, Ray Olszewski
wrote:

> I did not see the original posting, and I can't find it
> anywhere. Amin's response does not indicate whether the
> original posting mentioned the Linux distro involved, and
> he does not do so. And Amin's advice is not

Sorry, I found the original post in Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=mlist.linux.newbie&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

And here it is:

    From: Workman (david.rust@watkinsmfg.com)
    Subject: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?
    Newsgroups: mlist.linux.newbie
    This is the only article in this thread
    View: Original Format
    Date: 2003-03-30 08:00:16 PST
    
    I've FINALLY freed up one of my Pentiums to use as a
    Linux platform.  (I gotta get away from Microsoft!)
    
    I fought with it for an hour trying to get the install
    program to work, only to find out that my CD drive was
    screwed up (I think removable media drives are the
    weakest link in computers and CD drives are one of the
    worst).
    
    Swapped in a different CD drive and the installation
    took off like gangbusters.  Turbolinux Server 6.0 -
    Lite. Right now it's set up and seems to be working fine
    except that I tried to load the GUI (Gnome - I think)
    and I must have entered the wrong values for the monitor
    Vsync and Hsync.  So the GUI comes up and it's messed
    up. I can't do anything in it.  Damn! Looking back I see
    that my big mistake was in making the loading of the GUI
    automatic - so now I have to figure out how to stop it
    from loading so I can use one of the CLI configuration
    tools to alter the Vsync and Hsync values.
    
    Well - I've heard of the problem in the Linux discussion
    groups (trouble getting the monitor values right) so I
    know this isn't unusual but I think the other people
    were smart enough not to have the GUI load automatically
    and prevent the accessing of the CLI configuration
    tools. The documentation says that pressing
    Control-Alt-Backspace will kill the GUI but it doesn't
    work for me.  It's locked up when the GUI
    displays. Control-Alt-Delete won't reboot it.
    
    Well I wanted to learn about Linux, I guess I AM!
    
    I know I'll need to read more documentation. Meanwhile,
    any ideas, criticism, or encouragement?

> distro-neutral; not all distros use the runlevel setting
> to launch xdm (or gdm). Debian, for example, uses a script
> in /etc/init.d that gets called from runlevel 2 (which it
> uses as its default runlevel).

Sorry, I didn't know about this.  I assumed it was
controlled by ``inittab''.

> Amin made reference to a "messy GUI" in his reply. Since I
> never saw the original message, and he did not quote any
> of it, it is possible that the original questioner
> indicated some reason why he or she could not actually use
> the GUI interface to open an xterm (or possibly even to
> log in). In that case ... typically, distros that run xdm
> also open a hidden console on /dev/tty1, which one can
> access by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 when the xdm display is
> active. You can then log in, make any needed changes, and
> reboot.

That is a good idea, but I was afraid that it would mess
around with X.  I tried it once (I'm using RH8.0), and it
seemed to hose my X server.

> Finally, if even that does not work, at the lilo prompt
> (assuming we're talking about an install that uses lilo),
> instead of accepting the default load, you can usually
> enter "linux single" to boot/init into single-user mode
> with a console rather than X presented.

I assumed Linux was the lone OS on the PC, so there was no
bootloader.

HTH,
Yawar Amin
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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Ray Olszewski]

Thanks for finding the original message. It did not occur to me that it 
might be 6 weeks old ... I don't normally keep list traffic anywhere close 
to that long. The original message tells us two things:

1. The poster was using TurboLinux 6.0 Lite. I don't know how that distro 
starts xdm, and I wonder if anyone here has used it and knows.

2. The X setup is bad enough that he cannot use it to login and open an xterm.

With that background ...

... there is one other candidate approach I forgot to mention. If the 
system is on a network and accepts remote connections (via telnet or ssh), 
the easiest way to fix this is simply to login remotely and make the needed 
changes. I don't know why I didn't think to mention it, since it is the 
actual way I usually fix X-display problems.

At 10:09 PM 5/10/2003 +0600, Amin wrote:
[...]
> > distro-neutral; not all distros use the runlevel setting
> > to launch xdm (or gdm). Debian, for example, uses a script
> > in /etc/init.d that gets called from runlevel 2 (which it
> > uses as its default runlevel).
>
>Sorry, I didn't know about this.  I assumed it was
>controlled by ``inittab''.

Right. That's (as I recall) how Red Hat does it, and it is the most common 
method ... just not a universal one.

Especially here on a list for beginners, knowing what parts of a setup are 
distro specific and what parts (reasonably) standard across distros is 
tricky. That's why I always tell people they HAVE to mention what distro 
and version they are using to get meaningful help ... and why you will 
often see me qualify my answers as describing the Debian approach to some 
setup issue. Remember the old joke about "assume".

> > Amin made reference to a "messy GUI" in his reply. Since I
> > never saw the original message, and he did not quote any
> > of it, it is possible that the original questioner
> > indicated some reason why he or she could not actually use
> > the GUI interface to open an xterm (or possibly even to
> > log in). In that case ... typically, distros that run xdm
> > also open a hidden console on /dev/tty1, which one can
> > access by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 when the xdm display is
> > active. You can then log in, make any needed changes, and
> > reboot.
>
>That is a good idea, but I was afraid that it would mess
>around with X.  I tried it once (I'm using RH8.0), and it
>seemed to hose my X server.

I don't know what you mean by "mess around". This approach leaves X for a 
vt console, and you never go back to X. Depending on details incidental to 
the original question, switching to a vt then trying to switch BACK to X 
might cause problems you could characterize as "seemed to hose my X 
server". But since the purpose is to allow the user to disable launching of 
xdm, who cares? Any "hosing" will not survive a reboot. And how much more 
"hosed" can this X get than what the original poster described?

BTW, it is possible that the "hidden console" is on some other vt, not F1, 
so this experiment should try at least all of F1-F6 before giving up. (I 
seem to recall that Slackware used to put it on F6, but I'm not sure, and 
it has been a long time since I switched away from Slackware).

> > Finally, if even that does not work, at the lilo prompt
> > (assuming we're talking about an install that uses lilo),
> > instead of accepting the default load, you can usually
> > enter "linux single" to boot/init into single-user mode
> > with a console rather than X presented.
>
>I assumed Linux was the lone OS on the PC, so there was no
>bootloader.

This comment is meaningless; every system has a bootloader (otherwise it 
will not boot) ... or, to be exact, every system that boots from a hard 
disk does. (You *can* create a rescue floppy that loads the Linux kernel 
directly, but this is hardly a normal boot method, even for systems that 
run a single OS.)



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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[sean]

> BTW, it is possible that the "hidden console" is on some other vt, not F1, so
> this experiment should try at least all of F1-F6 before giving up. (I seem to
>recall that Slackware used to put it on F6, but I'm not sure, and it has been
> long time since I switched away from Slackware).

   Actually, it's not unusual to have six differnt console screens available;
it depends on the settings in inittab, at least on the distros I'm currently
familiar with...  (X Windows comes up on the next available screen...)



Jame


--- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag-4
 * Origin: http://bbs.rocasa.org (1:120/546)
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renaming really long filenames

[Chuck Gelm]

 Howdy, Y'all:

 I have some very long filenames that I would like to shorten.
The filenames contain 'spaces' and some characters with tics or
apostrophes, and tildes over them.  I tried to change them from
a console session, but I don't know how to generate those special
characters from the keyboard...and I really don't want to type
the long filenames anyway.  :-|
OBTW, I have no GUI (X windows) on this computer.

 Is there a way to remove all characters < 023h && > 06fh
from these filenames?

find - sed - mv  ???

Regards, Chuck
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Re: renaming really long filenames

[Ray Olszewski]

At 05:14 PM 5/11/2003 -0400, Chuck Gelm wrote:
>  Howdy, Y'all:
>
>  I have some very long filenames that I would like to shorten.
>The filenames contain 'spaces' and some characters with tics or
>apostrophes, and tildes over them.  I tried to change them from
>a console session, but I don't know how to generate those special
>characters from the keyboard

You precede the special character with a backslash, in general. Sometimes, 
you put the name in quotes instead of, or in addition, to that. Examples:

touch "some name"
         will create a file with the two-word name "some name"

mv some\ name some\ other\ name
         will change its name to the 3-word name "some other name".

>...and I really don't want to type
>the long filenames anyway.  :-|
>OBTW, I have no GUI (X windows) on this computer.
>
>  Is there a way to remove all characters < 023h && > 06fh
>from these filenames?
>
>find - sed - mv  ???

Well, if I had this problem, I'd use a Perl program to iterate through the 
filenames in the directory, change each one to its special-character-free 
equivalent, and do a mv from the old name to the new name. Using Perl would 
also give me a language powerful enough easily to check each revised name 
for uniqueness before doing he mv, so I didn't accidently overwrite a file.

Chapter 9 of _Perl Cookbook_ (an ORA book) has some examples of how to use 
Perl to process filenames, though on a quick scan, I didn't see an example 
that was an exact fit to your problem.





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Re: renaming really long filenames

[Stephen Samuel]

My solution would be something like:

for i in * ;   do  mv "./$i" "`echo ./$i | tr -d '\00-\042\173-\377<>|' `" ; done


Note: I'm deleting characters starting at 7bH, not 6fH -- 6F is in the middle
of the lower case alphabet, so  it doesn't make sense.

Other things to note:
   I'm using octal (base 8) characters in the string, not hex
   the backquote (`)  says to run the command and use the output as the
   parameter to (in this case) the 'mv' command.

   I'm using './filename' to handle the possibility of a filename starting with
   a '-' and being mistaken for an option.   './' says "in the current directory",
   so it's something of a no-op, but guarantees that the name won't start with a '-'.

   the double quotes around "./$i" make sure that spaces (and other greeblies) in the
   original filename don't get interpreted as work breaks.


Chuck Gelm wrote:
>  Howdy, Y'all:
> 
>  I have some very long filenames that I would like to shorten.
> The filenames contain 'spaces' and some characters with tics or
> apostrophes, and tildes over them.  I tried to change them from
> a console session, but I don't know how to generate those special
> characters from the keyboard...and I really don't want to type
> the long filenames anyway.  :-|
> OBTW, I have no GUI (X windows) on this computer.
> 
>  Is there a way to remove all characters < 023h && > 06fh
> from these filenames?
> 
> find - sed - mv  ???
> 
> Regards, Chuck
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> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
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-- 
Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426                samuel@bcgreen.com
		   http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/
Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and
doubt to touch the jewel within each person and bring it to life.

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Re: renaming really long filenames

[Chuck Gelm]

Hi, Stephen:

 Hey, this looks great!  Thanks.  I'll read up with
"man tr".  I am thinking that I would like to translate
spaces to underscores and non-alphanumeric to null.


Stephen Samuel wrote:
> 
> My solution would be something like:
> 
> for i in * ;   do  mv "./$i" "`echo ./$i | tr -d '\00-\042\173-\377<>|' `" ; done
> 
> Note: I'm deleting characters starting at 7bH, not 6fH -- 6F is in the middle
> of the lower case alphabet, so  it doesn't make sense.
> 
> Other things to note:
>    I'm using octal (base 8) characters in the string, not hex
>    the backquote (`)  says to run the command and use the output as the
>    parameter to (in this case) the 'mv' command.
> 
>    I'm using './filename' to handle the possibility of a filename starting with
>    a '-' and being mistaken for an option.   './' says "in the current directory",
>    so it's something of a no-op, but guarantees that the name won't start with a '-'.
> 
>    the double quotes around "./$i" make sure that spaces (and other greeblies) in the
>    original filename don't get interpreted as work breaks.
> 
> Chuck Gelm wrote:
> >  Howdy, Y'all:
> >
> >  I have some very long filenames that I would like to shorten.
> > The filenames contain 'spaces' and some characters with tics or
> > apostrophes, and tildes over them.  I tried to change them from
> > a console session, but I don't know how to generate those special
> > characters from the keyboard...and I really don't want to type
> > the long filenames anyway.  :-|
> > OBTW, I have no GUI (X windows) on this computer.
> >
> >  Is there a way to remove all characters < 023h && > 06fh
> > from these filenames?
<snip>
> --
> Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426                samuel@bcgreen.com
>                    http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/
> Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and
> doubt to touch the jewel within each person and bring it to life.
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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Stephen Samuel]

Amin wrote:
> On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 08:42:05AM -0700, Ray Olszewski
> wrote:
> 
> 
>>I did not see the original posting, and I can't find it
>>anywhere. Amin's response does not indicate whether the
>>original posting mentioned the Linux distro involved, and
>>he does not do so. And Amin's advice is not
> 
> 
> Sorry, I found the original post in Google Groups:
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=mlist.linux.newbie&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search
> 
> And here it is:
> 
>     From: Workman (david.rust@watkinsmfg.com)
>     Subject: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?
>     Newsgroups: mlist.linux.newbie
>     This is the only article in this thread
>     View: Original Format
>     Date: 2003-03-30 08:00:16 PST

.....

>>log in). In that case ... typically, distros that run xdm
>>also open a hidden console on /dev/tty1, which one can
>>access by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 when the xdm display is
>>active. You can then log in, make any needed changes, and
>>reboot.
> 
> 
> That is a good idea, but I was afraid that it would mess
> around with X.  I tried it once (I'm using RH8.0), and it
> seemed to hose my X server.

ctrl-alt-F1 should not mess with X (It's messed up,
anyways, so who cares). It simply moves you to a different
virtual terminal.  X is still running.  ctrl-altF7 (on redhat)
will move you back to the X screen.  It might be a differnt
screen number for Turbo Linux... (just go through all 12
ctrl-alt-F[n] sequences if you can't find it).

>>Finally, if even that does not work, at the lilo prompt
>>(assuming we're talking about an install that uses lilo),
>>instead of accepting the default load, you can usually
>>enter "linux single" to boot/init into single-user mode
>>with a console rather than X presented.
> 
> 
> I assumed Linux was the lone OS on the PC, so there was no
> bootloader.

There will be a boot loader... be it Lilo, GRUB, or whatever.
watch the boot sequence closely.

-- 
Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426                samuel@bcgreen.com
		   http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/
Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and
doubt to touch the jewel within each person and bring it to life.

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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Richard Adams]

On Monday 19 May 2003 19:51, Stephen Samuel wrote:
> Amin wrote:
> > On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 08:42:05AM -0700, Ray Olszewski
> >
> > wrote:
> >>I did not see the original posting, and I can't find it
> >>anywhere. Amin's response does not indicate whether the
> >>original posting mentioned the Linux distro involved, and
> >>he does not do so. And Amin's advice is not
> >
> > Sorry, I found the original post in Google Groups:
> > http://groups.google.com/groups?q=mlist.linux.newbie&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl
> >=en&btnG=Google+Search

NOt having been around much latly i missed ost of this thread, however i did 
read the above message in google, As Far As I Can See, the best thing to do 
here is to boot into either runlevel 1 or 3, as mentioned there will be a 
boot loader presant, be it lilo or grub, (i dont use grub) but i can give an 
example of howto do it with lilo.

At the lilo boot prompt "Hit any key" to stop the boot(ing) timer, you now 
have time to think, what one needs to do is to choose the "linux Option" and 
enter either a "1" or  "3" after it, example;

You can choose from 
Linux
 or
Dos

choose Linux it will be highlighted at the :Boot" prompt, add a "1" or a "3" 
after it, 1 or 3 is the runlevel if any askes...
When booted into one or 3 they are both console modes, do the following;

cd /etc
vi inittab
(Got to something like line 20) a line which looks like);
id:4:initdefault:   
{OR}
id:5:initdefault:
Edit that line to;
id:3:initdefault:
save the file, now on the next boot linux will boot into console mode.

Find your problem at ease now and then when you are sure you can boot properly 
change /etc/inittab back to runlevel 4 or 5 which ever your distro uses.

--
Regards Richard.
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/


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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Stephen Samuel]

Richard Adams wrote:
> On Monday 19 May 2003 19:51, Stephen Samuel wrote:
>>Amin wrote:
>>>On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 08:42:05AM -0700, Ray Olszewski
>>>wrote:

> choose Linux it will be highlighted at the :Boot" prompt, add a "1" or a "3" 
> after it, 1 or 3 is the runlevel if any askes...
> When booted into one or 3 they are both console modes, do the following;

> cd /etc
> vi inittab
> (Got to something like line 20) a line which looks like);
> id:4:initdefault:   
> {OR}
> id:5:initdefault:
> Edit that line to;
> id:3:initdefault:
> save the file, now on the next boot linux will boot into console mode.
> 
> Find your problem at ease now and then when you are sure you can boot properly 
> change /etc/inittab back to runlevel 4 or 5 which ever your distro uses.

This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
to control X-Windows startup.

-- 
Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426                samuel@bcgreen.com
		   http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/
Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and
doubt to touch the jewel within each person and bring it to life.

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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Richard Adams]

On Monday 19 May 2003 21:07, Stephen Samuel wrote:

> This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
> I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
> Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
> to control X-Windows startup.

Name one that does not use /etc/inittab, i do not posess to know everything, 
but i have never seen one which does not use the inittab method.

-- 
Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/



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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Stephen Samuel]

Richard Adams wrote:
 > On Monday 19 May 2003 21:07, Stephen Samuel wrote:
 >
 >
 >>This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
 >>I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
 >>Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
 >>to control X-Windows startup.
 >
 >
 > Name one that does not use /etc/inittab, i do not posess to know everything,
 > but i have never seen one which does not use the inittab method.

I don't personally know of one, but I'm aware that it's definitely
possible, and there's no reason to not do it (other than the fact that
it'd confuse oldies like you and me).  Since I haven't played with
that many flavours of Linux, I can only accept as truth that there
are some that do it in different ways.

I'm not talking about the  initstate value in inittab,  here.
I'm talking about there being an xdm startup entry in inittab
for level 5 .

Solaris is a non-linux example where the 'normal' states are
2 (non-networked) and 3(networked) and the use of X is
determined via a different mechanism. Somebody who wanted to
put together a version of Linux that looked as much like
Solaris as posible would then be following the Solaris
mechanism.

-- 
Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426                samuel@bcgreen.com
		   http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/
Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and
doubt to touch the jewel within each person and bring it to life.

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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Richard Adams]

On Monday 19 May 2003 22:39, Stephen Samuel wrote:
> Richard Adams wrote:
>  > On Monday 19 May 2003 21:07, Stephen Samuel wrote:
>  >>This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
>  >>I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
>  >>Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
>  >>to control X-Windows startup.
>  >
>  > Name one that does not use /etc/inittab, i do not posess to know
>  > everything, but i have never seen one which does not use the inittab
>  > method.
>
> I don't personally know of one, but I'm aware that it's definitely
> possible, and there's no reason to not do it (other than the fact that
> it'd confuse oldies like you and me).  Since I haven't played with
> that many flavours of Linux, I can only accept as truth that there
> are some that do it in different ways.

There is no doubt about the means to do it in many ways, thats the heart of 
linux.

> I'm not talking about the  initstate value in inittab,  here.
> I'm talking about there being an xdm startup entry in inittab
> for level 5 .

Not in Slackware theres not, at least not directly mentioned, all slackware 
does is call /etc/rc.d/rc.4 when runlevel 4 is defined as initdefault4, note 
slackware uses init 4 for X and not 5.
/etc/rc.d/rc.4 is editable to start which ever enviroment one wants, just like 
SysVinit systems allow in thier files which are in /etc/sysconfig i belive.

On another note it used to be like you say, however things change, i seemingly 
like you think about how it used to be but upon deeper study one sees the 
changes which we have never seen.

Thanks anyway for you input.

>
> Solaris is a non-linux example where the 'normal' states are
> 2 (non-networked) and 3(networked) and the use of X is
> determined via a different mechanism. Somebody who wanted to
> put together a version of Linux that looked as much like
> Solaris as posible would then be following the Solaris
> mechanism.

I have never used solaris so i cannot compare the two, anyway we are taking 
linux here and not another operating system.

-- 
Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/



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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Ray Olszewski]

At 09:55 PM 5/19/2003 +0200, Richard Adams wrote:
>On Monday 19 May 2003 21:07, Stephen Samuel wrote:
>
> > This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
> > I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
> > Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
> > to control X-Windows startup.
>
>Name one that does not use /etc/inittab, i do not posess to know everything,
>but i have never seen one which does not use the inittab method.

A normal Debian install (Woody or Sid, maybe older versions too) starts xdm 
from an /etc/init.d script that is symlinked to runlevels the usual way. 
The standard practice is to leave the system at runlevel 2 and run an S99xdm .



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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Richard Adams]

On Monday 19 May 2003 23:14, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> At 09:55 PM 5/19/2003 +0200, Richard Adams wrote:
> >On Monday 19 May 2003 21:07, Stephen Samuel wrote:
> > > This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
> > > I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
> > > Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
> > > to control X-Windows startup.
> >
> >Name one that does not use /etc/inittab, i do not posess to know
> > everything, but i have never seen one which does not use the inittab
> > method.
>
> A normal Debian install (Woody or Sid, maybe older versions too) starts xdm
> from an /etc/init.d script that is symlinked to runlevels the usual way.
> The standard practice is to leave the system at runlevel 2 and run an
> S99xdm .

But does Debian define the runlevel in /etc/inittab ?.

-- 
Regards Richard
pa3gcu@zeelandnet.nl
http://people.zeelandnet.nl/pa3gcu/



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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Ray Olszewski]

At 07:23 AM 5/20/2003 +0200, Richard Adams wrote:
>On Monday 19 May 2003 23:14, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> > At 09:55 PM 5/19/2003 +0200, Richard Adams wrote:
> > >On Monday 19 May 2003 21:07, Stephen Samuel wrote:
> > > > This solution presumes that X startup is controlled by the runlevel.
> > > > I presume that you know about TurboLinux. I really only know RedHat.
> > > > Apparently, some versions of Linux use methods other than run level
> > > > to control X-Windows startup.
> > >
> > >Name one that does not use /etc/inittab, i do not posess to know
> > > everything, but i have never seen one which does not use the inittab
> > > method.
> >
> > A normal Debian install (Woody or Sid, maybe older versions too) starts xdm
> > from an /etc/init.d script that is symlinked to runlevels the usual way.
> > The standard practice is to leave the system at runlevel 2 and run an
> > S99xdm .
>
>But does Debian define the runlevel in /etc/inittab ?.

What does "define the runlevel" mean, Richard?

The usual practice (RH and its offshoots, Slackware) is to define in 
/etc/inittab a distinct runlevel that starts an xdm process directly from a 
line of this form:

         6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6

(the example starts a tty, so it's only illustrative). As I recall, RH and 
its ilk do it from runlevel 5, while Slackware does it from runlevel 4.

So to start xdm from these distros, you change this line in inittab --

         id:2:initdefault:

-- to read either

         id:5:initdefault:
or
         id:4:initdefault:


Debian, in contrast, creates a script /etc/init.d/xdm that starts the xdm 
process on the next available vt (usually 7, in practice). It them symlinks 
that script to the standard multiuser runlevel, runlevel 2 and does not 
change the initdefault line in inittab.

This has operational consequences. The important one, for purposes of this 
thread, is that you cannot change the X startup either by editing inittab 
or by specifying a runlevels a lilo parameter (the symlinks are the same 
for runlevels 2, 3, 4, and 5 on a standard Debian install). You must change 
or remove the symlink to xdm in runlevel 2 (again, on a standard Debian 
install). This is inconvenient in the cases where xdm so trashes the video 
subsystem that you cannot CTRL-ALT-F* back to a console (it happens) ... 
your only option (unless you have a remote login capability, say through 
ssh) is to boot/init into runlevel 1 and fix things there.

I don't know if any distro other than Debian does it that way. I'd 
speculate that the Debian derivatives do, but there are not nearly so many 
of them as there are RH derivatives, so it may not actually come up much.



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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Chuck Gelm]

# These are the default runlevels in Slackware:
#   0 = halt
#   1 = single user mode
#   2 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
#   3 = multiuser mode (default Slackware runlevel)
#   4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
#   5 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
#   6 = reboot

# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:3:initdefault:

HTH, Chuck
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RE: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Riley Williams]

Hi Chuck.

On Red Hat, they are as follows...

	0 = halt
	1 = single user mode
	2 = non-network text mode
	3 = networked text mode
	4 = unused
	5 = X-Windows
	6 = halt

...and either 3 or 5 can be the default.

Best wishes from Riley.
---
 * Nothing as pretty as a smile, nothing as ugly as a frown.


 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org
 > [mailto:linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org]On Behalf Of Chuck Gelm
 > Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 11:27 PM
 > To: linux-newbie@vger.kernel.org
 > Subject: Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?
 > 
 > 
 > # These are the default runlevels in Slackware:
 > #   0 = halt
 > #   1 = single user mode
 > #   2 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
 > #   3 = multiuser mode (default Slackware runlevel)
 > #   4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
 > #   5 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
 > #   6 = reboot
 > 
 > # Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
 > id:3:initdefault:
 > 
 > HTH, Chuck

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.483 / Virus Database: 279 - Release Date: 19-May-2003

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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Amin]

On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 01:29:37PM +0000, Charlotte Miller wrote:

> These instructions sound rather convoluted.  Why would this individual
> need to boot from an installation CD just to edit a file?  I assume one
> needs root priviledges to edit /etc/innitab, but wouldn't it be alot
> easier to open a console, then su to root, then invoke a word processor
> and open the file with it?  Or invoke MC from that root console, navigate
> to the file using it, then use MC's editor to edit the runlevel argument?
> Please clarify on the need to do the editing from other bootable media.
> 
> Thanks, James

My reasoning was, the original poster couldn't get into a
graphical console (such as ``xterm'') because his/her X
configuration was incorrect and graphical environment was
unworkable.  Also, if he/she tried to do a
[Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Backspace] to go to text mode, the only effect
that had was, X restarted itself --- because ``inittab''
only allows the system to run in runlevel 5.

For the same reason, the OP couldn't boot into text mode
when the system started up.  So, I thought he/she should
access the file by using the installation CD.

Yawar Amin
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Re: How do I stop GUI from autoloading?

[Brian P. Bilbrey]

On Sat, 2003-05-10 at 11:43, Amin wrote:
> [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Backspace] to go to text mode, the only effect
> that had was, X restarted itself --- because ``inittab''
> only allows the system to run in runlevel 5.

So C-A-Bksp was restarting X properly (even if X wasn't working), yes?
Then why not use C-A-F1 to get to a text console, login, do the edit,
and restart???

.brian

-- 
Brian P. Bilbrey <bilbrey@orbdesigns.com>
Orb Designs

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