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pgp trash troll delete

Lew Pitcher <Lew.Pitcher@td.com> wrote:
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> standardblue wrote:

> > On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 07:56:22 -0400, Lew Pitcher wrote:
> > <snip>
> >
> >>a) From any (character) console: <ctl><alt><del> will shutdown/reboot
> >> (see the "ca" line in /etc/inittab)
> >> (FWIW, <ctl><alt><Fx> will move you from a GUI to a console, where
> >> you can then <ctl><alt><del> to shutdown)
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > ...and for any other newbie stupid enough to try <ctrl><alt><Fx> to see
> > what it does... (ahem)...

> Well, it (and <alt><Fx>) move you from virtual console to virtual
> terminal. When your virtual terminal is running X, you have to add the
> <ctl>, otherwise X will intercept the keystroke and you won't move.

> Now, how do you know which terminals to move to? Well, your /etc/inittab
> and your /etc/rc.d/rc.5 tell you. In /etc/inittab, you'll see a number
> of lines that look like this...
> # These are the standard console login getties in multiuser mode:
> c1:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux
> c2:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
> c3:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux
> c4:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux
> c5:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux
> c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux

> Each one of those 'respawn' lines starts up a virtual terminal
> F1 corresponds to the c1 line that starts tty1,
> F2 corresponds to the c2 line that starts tty2,
> and so on.

> The numbers after the first colon tell you which runlevel(s) the line
> applies to. So, if you boot into runlevel 4, only the c6 line that
> starts tty6 will be active (it's the only one that starts in runlevel
> 4). So, [<ctl>]<alt><F6> will take you to the getty login on the tty6
> virtual terminal.

> Now, where is your X session? If you don't tell X otherwise, it starts
> the X session on the first free console after the last used one. In
> other words, without any overriding instructions, in this case X will
> start the session on tty7, and you'd get to tty7 through [<ctl>]<alt><F7>.

> So, what was that you saw on tty1 (F1)? Well, Linux also allocates a
> special device called the "console" (/dev/console) and places it on tty1
> unless otherwise instructed. When you [<ctl>]<alt><F1>, you ended up
> looking at /dev/console. /dev/console is special; that's where the
> startup messages are sent, so that's what you saw when you got there.

> Assuming that none of the other consoles were started, you got only
> blank screens when you [<ctl>]<alt><Fx>'ed to them.


> And, that's that ;-)
> > my subsequent trial-and-error revealed that <alt><F7> brought me back into
> > x-windows!
> >
> > oopsie...
> >
> > sb


> - --

> Lew Pitcher, IT Consultant, Enterprise Application Architecture
> Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

> (Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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