[wellylug] X Server

Cliff Pratt enkidu at cliffp.com
Sun Apr 15 21:22:46 NZST 2007


Leo McKEEFRY wrote:
> Hi Cliff,
>             I managed to get enter to bring up a screen that doesn't 
> mean much to me and needs to be sped read as it scrolls up the screen 
> and then gives a whole lot of stuff on ubuntu ending with ubuntu§ubuntu:$
>         My keyboard is a standard 104 key PS2.cheers Leo.
> 
Try hitting the pause key and see if you can get some of the 'stuff'. 
That 'ubuntu$' at the end looks much like a command prompt. Does the 
screen clear at the end, or is some of the 'stuff' left on there? If so, 
  can you please transcribe some of it?

I don't know if you know some Linux/Unix or not Leo, so I'm going to 
assume *nothing*. Sorry if I state the obvious.

When you boot a Linux/Unix or even Windows system, the system runs a lot 
of tasks to get the system up and running. On Windows this is all 
hidden. On Linux/Unix it gets blatted at the screen. You don't have to 
read this stuff. In fact, you can't because it whizzes by.

Some GUI based Linux/Unix systems also hide this stuff. If something 
goes awry you may also see it.

The natural state of a Linux?unix system is the command line. This is 
often the machine name followed by a dollar sign. If you see this then X 
has not started.

If you run Linux it is a good idea to become a little bit familiar with 
the command line, so that you can diagnose problems, but it can be a 
steep learning curve.

Cheers,

Cliff





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