[CLUE-Tech] xquestion

[Matt Gushee]

On Sun, Jan 12, 2003 at 11:29:08AM -0700, Ed Hill wrote:
> 
>   1) For most distros, you need to edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config file.

Or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, as it often is these days.

>   2) You might be having problems with your graphical login manager. 
>      You could edit your /etc/inittab file so that you have an old-
>      style text login:
> 
>        id:3:initdefault:

That's probably the right way to do it for SuSE, and most likely will
cause no serious harm even if it isn't, but you shouldn't automatically
assume that. On Debian systems, for example, you generally use run level
2 rather than 3 for a non-graphical multi-user login--yet, unlike Red
Hat (and probably SuSE), setting the default run level to 2 doesn't
automatically disable the graphical login.

You might want to check out what services are started in run level 3
before you decide to make it the default. You should have a directory
called something like /etc/rc3.d (or is it /etc/rc.d/rc3.d ?). You
generally want to choose a run level where things like networking and 
sendmail (or equivalent) are enabled. If you see, for example, 

   S20networking
   S45inetd
   S60sendmail

those are good signs that it's a "normal" run level. The 'S' means
Start, and the numbers indicate the order the services are started in
(no magic there: the order of starting services is determined by the
sort order of the files).

Anyway, it probably won't be the end of the world if you get it wrong.
The main thing you want to avoid is setting your default run level to 0
or 6. On most systems those mean, respectively, halt and reboot. You can
tell by looking at the /etc/rc0.d and /etc/rc6.d directories: most or
all the filenames begin with 'K', meaning Kill.

-- 
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.)