[CLUE-Tech] Building Kernel w/Debian

[Matt Gushee]

On Mon, Oct 14, 2002 at 07:27:51PM -0600, Randy Arabie wrote:
> 
> Good news: I got my kernel recompiled and the reboot 
> seemed to work.
> 
> Bad news:  When I rebooted xdm took control (don't know
> why, I didn't have it configured before)

Between this and my persistent DHCP problem ... I think we ought to have
a contest for weirdest Linux problem.

> I can't figure out how to get a shell prompt!!  I'm a 
> little embarassed, it seems so elementry....there isn't 
> even a [run command] or [xterm] option available via
> the twm menu!

Do you mean you want to get a shell prompt right now to tweak your
settings, or you want to be able to start a *Term in whatever window
manager you have running now (are you sure it's twm?)?

> I've been using X, but I was starting it from the command
> line.  I use xfce.  Right now, I've got a twm via the xdm 
> login.
> 
> I know I could reboot into single user, and get a shell 
> that way, but there must be another way....

Well, you know about Ctrl+Alt+F2 (or F3 .. F6) to get into another
virtual console (i.e. one that isn't running X)? Then once you've got
that, you can become root and start fixing things. I think what I did 
to disable XDM was something like:

  1. # vim /etc/inittab

     [ made sure the default runlevel was 2:

       id:2:initdefault:

     ]

  2. # rm /etc/rc2.d/S99xdm
  
  3. # telinit 1    # to kill the running XDM session

  4. [ after logging in ] # telinit 2

But it's very strange that this should happen just because you compiled
a kernel.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)