Ron Levine wrote,
>Ok, I have the driver from Nvidia. Now, I need to shut down X-windows to
>install it.
>
>Is there a way to do so by going to ctrl-f2 and executing a command?? I
>tried killall, but it didn't work.
On my Slackware system, "telinit 3" does the trick. It only works if you're
root. When the new driver is installed, say "telinit 4" to restart X.
Traditionally, Unix (at least Unixes in the System V lineage, including
Linux) knows about seven different "run levels", numbered 0 through 6.
Level 0 is usually for shutting down the system, level 1 is usually for
single-user mode, and level 6 is usually for rebooting the system. The
other levels vary from version to version, but 3 often gives a text-mode
console, and level 4 or 5 runs X on the console.
On Slackware, level 3 provides a text-mode console, and level 4 provides
X on the console. "telinit 3" tells the system to switch to level 3,
which stops X and give a plain text console. "telinit 4" switches back to X.
Unfortunately, some distributions don't do that way. I've seen distributions
that run X in every available run level, so there's no easy way to get a
plain text console with no X running.
If you're feeling ambitious, the meanings of the various run levels on your
system can be discovered by reading /etc/inittab, and changed by editing
/etc/inittab (as root, of course). "man inittab" will tell you about the
file's syntax.
- Neil Parker
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