Linux

Hiya, nosing around linux trying to figure it out. I have this pain in the butt problem where i go into the virtual terminal, change terminal to log in as root to do some admin work and quit that terminal. How the hell do i get it back into KDE? i keep having to reboot because no online manual has something as strupid as how to quit out of virtual terminal!!!!
 
It's been a while since I've really used a Linux-based system, but X is usually on the "seventh VT"; not actually a VT from the kernel standpoint AFAIK, but you switch to it like a VT, usually with Alt+F7 or Ctrl+Alt+F7.
 
Maybe i don't understand...

The "virtual terminal" you said is in fact the REAL terminal (because i think your linux boot directly into X, isn't it ?).

A virtual terminal is an xterm session open under X.

Under the teminal, you have to tape "startx" in order to return into your X session.
 
The terminals you switch between with ctrl+alt+Fn are called virtual terminals because they're not real hardware terminals connected to your box. xterm in turn is a terminal emulator.
 
If the console has just been flipped to a VT, X is already running. Running startx would attempt to start it again. VTs are a kernel feature. The X terminal emulators use them, but most Linux distributions also set up 4-5 console VTs as well. The "real" terminal is the physical computer screen and keyboard.

edit: actually, I think I was wrong about the "real terminal" being the screen. The terminal model hails from the days of massive multiuser systems, when a single computer had to support tens or hundreds of terminals (the original ones were called "teletypewriters", which is where the abbreviation "tty" and the error message "not a typewriter" come from) connected via serial ports or similar connections. So I think it might be more accurate to say that there is no "real terminal" on desktop systems, and the kernel is doing terminal emulation through VGA and the keyboard controller. I guess this is mostly a semantic thing, though. And I just wrote a rant on it longer than my original post. Damn it.
 
thanx, saves me solving my problems with shutdown -r now :)

If you are already running x, it wont let you run it again, its like dosshell in that respect. Though of it, tried it. Will mess around with the VT number 7 idea
 
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