How to get from KDE (or Gnome or fluxbox or ...) to console

dufeu · l33t Joined: 30 Aug 2002 Posts: 924 Location: US-FL-EST

I saw this post which posed the question of how to get to console without doing a 'killall' etc. https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=20024&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40

As this question was off topic for the thread and no one really answered the question, I thought I'd post what I think is a better answer.

When Gentoo boots, it boots with 6 consoles. All these consoles come up to the login prompt automatically. If you've set X to start automatically with one of the window managers as your login, this graphical login occurs on console 1.

If you want to access a console, simply do a ctl-alt-Fkey. The Fkey should match the console you want. So if you want to access the next available console (console 2), press ctl-alt-F2. You will be presented with a CLI login prompt. Login and do whatever you wanted to get access to the console for.

To get back to your GUI on console 1, do NOT do ctl-alt-F1. This will bring you to a CLI login on console 1. Instead, do a ctl-alt-F7. This will bring you back to your original GUI right where you left it.

The 'graphical' consoles (for want of a better term) are the CLI consoles + 6. That is to say, for console 1, the graphical display is done using F7. For console 2, the graphical display is done using F8 and so forth.

This lets you do nifty things like:

login to KDE
ctl-alt-F2
CLI login to bash
export XSESSION=fluxbox
startx -- :1

Now you have KDE running on F7 and fluxbox running on F8. To switch between them, simply do ctl-alt-F7 or ctl-alt-F8 as desired. Note that you have to increment the :# count for each additional WM you want to bring up. IE: startx -- :2 for the 3rd WM, startx -- :3 for the forth WM and so on.

CLI consoles start counting from 1
GUI consoles start counting from 7
X windows screens start counting from 0

I've had as many as 4 different WMs open at one time. It definitely helps to have a lot of memory. ;-)

(usually, I do this to demo the differences between WMs for people interested in switching to Linux)

I must admit that Gnome applications are the least well behaved in this kind of setup. Evolution in particular has given me a number of headaches. But that's a different topic in a different thread.

:-D

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Empty_One · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2002 Posts: 32

Thanks! I've always wondered how people had 2 wm's running, but was always too lazy to look it up.

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water · Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2002 9:33 am Post subject:

Little question: if i have KDE running and i press ctrl-alt-f1, i have to login again. So i'm wondering if KDE is running on console 1 actually?
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hhaamu · Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2002 11:50 am Post subject:

Nope, KDE is running under X, which is running (usually) on virtual console 7

vers_iq · Apprentice Joined: 18 May 2002 Posts: 264

Actually the number of virtual console depends on everyone's pc, not everyone spawn 6 tty u can check this by ps a | grep tty but this is the standard for almost every linux/BSD system, thus make tty7 and so on used by X. u can change the number of tty you want by modifying /etc/initttab but bare in mind adding up to 12 tty will cause you problem to go back to X (tty13) where is F13 key ?

btw i believe this thread should go under tips and tricks.
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hook · Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2002 12:43 pm Post subject:

dufeu · l33t Joined: 30 Aug 2002 Posts: 924 Location: US-FL-EST

thomasjb

once you have for instance kde and fluxbox running on F7 and F8 respectively and want to run gnome on F9 do you to do another export XSESSION=gnome as well as startx -- :2 or is the later enough? Thanks.
Regards,
Thomas.

hhaamu

pilla · Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2002 5:26 pm Post subject:

Nice tip. I'll teleport it to Documentation, Tips & Tricks.
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kermitjunior · Apprentice Joined: 04 Aug 2002 Posts: 167

Ok, login and kdm on terminal 1 (F1).
KDE starts running on VC7 (Virtual Console 7). I Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get back to terminal 1.

Now I start an emerge of, say, portage

(Term1) # emerge -u portage

Then I goto KDE (Alt-F7).

Next I start a Konsole and get something going there (Emerge openoffice).

Now, it's a pain to Ctrl-Alt-F1 just to see what's going on. Is there anyway, after I've started the emerge, to pipe it's video to Konsole2 or something? THat way I can flip back and forth with the mouse in the Konsole manager and see Terminal1 and Konsole1(actually in Term7).

Sick playout: The above, I'd really like to do, but once I figure that out, if I have Konsole pipe in, say, Terminal7, would it give me an infinite KDE in KDE in KDE in KDE... for viewing purposes (I realize it would only be output display... not actually running.)

Thanks in advance.
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schmobag · Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 5:20 pm Post subject:

Ast0r · Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject:

schmobag · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:23 am Post subject:

ctrl-alt-f* worked when I was running compiz, so I can't guess what the problem is. Have you started a thread on it under "Unsupported Software" or asked about it on the XGL thread? This thread is pretty old and stale.

Ast0r · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:59 am Post subject:

I did some testing and it I can switch to a terminal if I already have one open, but I can't get it to actually open a new one. :\