[SOLVED] Fedora 3 Text Console?

[pushback]

Can someone tell me how to get the console to come up in text mode rather than GUI?

Thanks

[retsaw]

If you are refering to when it boots, edit your /etc/inittab and change the runlevel to 3, i.e. you change this lineid:5:initdefault:to thisid:3:initdefault:

If you want to change runlevels temporarily, then you can use the command "init 3" to switch to runlevel 3 (console mode) and "init 5" to switch back to runlevel 5 (GUI).

If you just want to use a console while keeping the GUI running you can switch to it using the combination Ctrl-Alt-F1 and switch back with Ctrl-Alt-F7.

[pushback]

great--thanks.

So, here's a curious happening. I just installed Fedora 3 today and when I execute many commands I get "Input/output error":

[root@athena etc]# vim inittab
-bash: /usr/bin/vim: Input/output error
[root@athena etc]# find / -name vim -print
/usr/bin/vim
/usr/share/vim
[root@athena etc]# echo $PATH
/bin:/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin
[root@athena etc]# cat inittab
cat: inittab: Input/output error
[root@athena etc]# find / -name cat -print
/bin/cat

What am I missing?

[happybunny]

i dont know, but thought i'd help with something else...


instead of find / -name asdfa print, do

which cat
or
which vim


That will tell you where you run that command.

Also, -iname does a case insensitive search, too.

Good luck!

[pushback]

Great--thanks for that.

Anyone know why I get that error running vim or cat (and a whole lot of other executables)?

[phlipant]

If you only need the console for a little while you can type

init 3

or crtl->alt->F1

to get back, simply init 5 or crtl->alt/F7

If you want to permanently change, an editor will be required

[phlipant]

If you only need the console for a little while you can type

init 3

or crtl->alt->F1

to get back, simply init 5 or crtl->alt/F7

If you want to permanently change, an editor will be required

[pushback]

yeah--I got that part already--I'm looking to solve the Input/output error now.

[retsaw]

Try specifying the full file name eg. "/etc/inittab" instead of "inittab". Although you should get a file not found error not an input/output error. So, I haven't got a clue what is causing it, but have you tried rebooting to see if that helps?

EDIT: On Second thoughts, if specifying the full file name doesn't fix it, perthaps it is a filesystem error, so before you reboot (you don't want to reboot if you can't read your inittab), trymount / -o remount,roto mount your root filesystem readonly then run fsck on it, then you can remount it read/write again withmount / -o remount,rw