To make a long story short, I was forcing the installation of some RPMs earlier, and now I cannot even get to a login prompt: all I receive is the little wristwatch cursor. The package that caused this, I think, was 'xshared,' as things stopped working properly once I installed this.

I can get as far as the shell prompt using "linux rescue," but I have no idea what to do from there, if that's even where I want to be. And I have yet to see anything remotely useful on Google, either.

So what I really need to know is:
1) Assuming I wrecked X, can I reinstall it without having to reinstall Red Hat?
2) Failing the above, is there any way I can *easily* pull my bookmarks, music and documents off the drive before I lose everything?

I can expound on this if more information is needed to diagnose. TIA.

you can certainly do it. But first try to get to a command prompt. Boot up and when you see that watch, press ctrl-alt-f1. You'll get to a text terminal. Login and then become root with
su
and then do
init 3
this will stop X. Now do
startx
this will attempt to start X. You can see messages on ctrl-alt-f1. If you can post the error messages, maybe someone can tell you an easier fix.

If you want to reinstall X, it's a matter of reinstalling all the X related rpms. I wouldn't know which ones they are for RH but I'm sure someone knows.

First, thanks for the jumping off point.
Unfortunately, 'init 3' (or any variant thereof) doesn't work--command not found error. Trying startx "works" inasmuch as it executes, but of course throws an error because X is still running (I get a large paragraph about reporting bugs, and a single line about X being active).

How else does one kill X from a command prompt?

are you root when you do init 3? Try also telinit 3 (also as root).

Another thing you can do is edit the file
/etc/inittab

there's a line taht says
id:5:initdefault:

change the 5 to a 3. Again, you have to be root to do this. Reboot and it will get you to the text login with no X running.

one more thing. You might have to use
/sbin/init 3
instead of plain init 3.

How disappointing... no smiley-pounding-head-into-wall.

Thank you again. I was root, but I can't believe that it didn't occur to me already, to edit the bloody file. Will try next.