My kingdom for a BASH prompt!

[N5SBP]

Not having DVD capability, I downloaded and burned a CD with Suse11-kde4 ISO image. It installed great but I am lost on the KDE4 desktop. I'm looking for a command line interface where I can do down and dirty things like "SU -", invoking GRUB to create a rescue boot floppy, fdisk commands, etc. My old full featured Suse 7.3 (from DVD) had everything.

What am I looking for here anyway? Konsole? Xterm? BASH? A terminal? Would it be on the kicker side bar or somewhere in the control center?

Thanks,
Jim

[deltaflyer]

don't use KDE4, but, generally the terminals are located via kicker menu - system - terminal for a list

[devils casper]

Or press Alt+Ctrl+F1 ( to F6 ) and it will switch to virtual console. Press Alt+Ctrl+F7 to switch back to GUI.

[N5SBP]

Oh, I was trying ALT+F1 (I think I read this in a rescue system or something)

Thanks guys, I'll try both of those tonight,

Jim

[bigtomrodney]

Oh, I was trying ALT+F1 (I think I read this in a rescue system or something)

Thanks guys, I'll try both of those tonight,

Jim

Alt+F1 works when you are at one of the terminals already. When you are switching from X you need to use Ctrl+Alt instead

[boomerz37]

To run Linux commands, you need to get to the Linux command line prompt in either: 1. a "Terminal" or 2. a "Terminal Emulation Window".

Using Linux "Terminals"

A "terminal" is a completely black screen with white lettering at which the Linux command line prompt appears and you can run commands. It doesn't have a desktop in the background and by default, you can only see one command line prompt. In other words, you can only work in one terminal at a time.

To get to a terminal from a Linux desktop, such as KDE, you press Ctrl+Alt+Fx (and replace the x in Fx with a number from 1 to 6).

For example, pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (all three keys together) will take you to the first (of six) terminals.

By default, most Linux distributions have six terminals and you can work and run commands independently in each.

Once you are in a terminal, such as terminal 1, to get to another terminal, just press Alt+Fx (and replace the x in Fx with a number from 1 to 6).

For example, to go from any terminal to terminal 2, press Alt+F2 (both keys together).

Using Linux "Terminal Emulation Windows"

A terminal emulation window is a "window" on a Linux desktop that shows the Linux command line prompt so you can run Linux commands.

This method is usually much better than using a terminal (as opposed to a terminal emulation window).

You can open and view more than one Linux "terminal emulation window" at a time, scroll up to see previous commands and output, and copy and paste between windows.

In general, to get to the Linux bash shell prompt (Linux command line prompt) from ANY Linux Desktop:

1. Look in Linux desktop menus, such as a menu named System, for "Terminal", "Terminal Emulation Window" (or a similar word).

2. Right-click on an open area of the desktop (i.e. not on an icon or folder) and select "Terminal", "Terminal Emulation Window" (or a similar word) - this doesn't always work on all Linux desktops in all Linux distros.