It appears that you missed XSecrets' comment about how to get to a shell. You don't need to do the ctrl-alt-backspace 6 times or anything like that. Linux actually provides several virtual terminals that you can get to by hitting ctrl-alt-F1, ctrl-alt-F2, ctrl-alt-F3, ctrl-alt-F4, ctrl-alt-F5, and ctrl-alt-F6. Then to get back to X you can do ctrl-alt-F7 if that is where you started from.

No...I saw it. It just didn't work for me.


In fact, it's what I first tried...I had forgotten about killing the Xserver/GDM with backspace...I had been trying like mad to open up a shell...however, it just wouldn't work with the function keys for me


so I had to do it the way I did :p

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You can also simplify your procedure by using pkill.

cool! thanks tjc...that's a new one on me *files into mental roladex*

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