accessing shell when gnome locks up.

[Les Mikesell]

Tim wrote:
> Tim:
>>>> What are you going to do when serial ports disappear from motherboards?
> 
> Chris Mohler:
>>> Weep!
> 
> Andras Simon:
>> No! Curse! Much more efficient! :-)
>>
>> Or, as a last resort, get a usb->serial port converter.
>>
>> BTW, I'm only advocating this approach, not using it myself. I don't
>> remember having a lockup since I last tried to use NVidia's driver.
>> But then I'm not using Gnome or KDE, just a trusty old fvwm (1.24r).
> 
> I was serious in asking it.  While I haven't done the serial console
> trick, I see the purpose of it, and the need to be able to do such
> things.  I don't know if a USB-serial doodah would be useful in the
> situations where you might use a serial console, you mightn't have
> anything available to drive it.

These days you'd be much more likely to have another computer or laptop 
  with an ethernet connector available than a serial terminal or cable 
with the right-sized, right-gender ends.  If you don't have a hub, use a 
crossover ethernet cable to connect and use ssh.  Or get wireless 
working and forget about all that nonsense.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com