Boot to Command Prompt
 

Unfortunatly my linux box is setup to boot to GUI. I can get it to goto a command prompt by switching the VTY's once the GUI is booted. I know the root password and whenever I log in and issue a startx on the root side I get an error saying it is alreadying running.

I cannot use the GUI to log into root because it only shows the available username as being the user that is already created.

Does anyone know how I can get the system to boot just into a command prompt, log in as root, and than startx and do my config changes???

assuming you are using grub then
when the menu is show enter p it will prompt for a passord enter that
then type e and it will allow you to edit the command line
on the command line you append 3.
This will allow you to goto runlevel 3 where you can login as root and do the rest
--
if you want things to be permanent like this edit the /etc/inittab
change the line
id:5:initdefault:
to
id:3:initdefault:
--
if you are already started X and still want another X session then switch to the terminal and use
startx -- :1
you should be able to switch between the 2 X servers using alt+F7 and alt+F8

pressing p didn't work.... any other ideas?

Ok p is required only if the grub password is configured.
so when you see the grub menu type e. it may show you cuople of lines select the line starting with the kernel and again press e
goto the end of line and add a 3
so the line should look like
kernel ....... 3
now press enter
type b
this should start booting.

couldn't get that to work, but i got the whole startx -- :1 to work fine.. However now I get an error saying cannot find dev/mouse no device exsist.... ARRGGGness....

if you can tell me exactly what is happening when you try that I can help you.

There is actually a simple way to make root available for gui logon in Mandrake.

Go to the "Configure Your Desktop" app. (In 10.1 it is "Start --> System --> Configuration --> Configure your desktop".) Open the '+' button beside "System" in the Index on the left. Click on "Login Manager". In the panel on the right, click the button at the bottom labeled "Administrator Mode". Enter your root password in the dialog box. Then select the tab "Users". In the middle is a panel listing all users. UN-check the box beside "root" to enable it to be displayed by the login manager.

Click "Apply", close the window, log out, and you should have the option of "root" now available.

Edit: On the other hand, you should not normally log in as root, anyway. ;) Major security hole! The *best* way is to open a terminal window in your gui, and do a "su" command. Then, from that window, as root, do your editing, wither directly in the window using "vi", or "nano", or whatever editor you like, or by issuing a command like "kwrite <filename>" to edit <filename> in a KWrite window. Or you could use the command "kdesu kwrite" to run kwrite as root, from your login.

Be advised that logging in as root in X is not such a nice idea and hence is not done as default.