accessing shell when gnome locks up.

[Andras Simon]

On 2/27/07, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> 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.

I'm dead serious, too! (Especially about the cursing part :-).) I
actually used a nullmodem cable (+ mgetty and kermit) to connect my
Linux boxes back when they didn't have NICs.

As an aside: I also used PLIP for a while (that's IP via the parallel
port, for those who are too young to know). That was much better for
large file transfers. But this was back in the days when I compiled my
own kernel (I haven't done that since RH7.3 or maybe even 6.2). If I
wanted to connect two boxes with anything more complicated than a
nullmodem now, I'd have to ask it here how to proceed...

I don't know what drives a usb->serial converter, but if things are in
such a state that it can't do its thing, then probably mgetty can't
either, and  the power switch is your best bet. But I hope that X
going berserk doesn't result in such a mess.

Andras