Are you logging in at the machine or remotely? At the machine, just log into one of the VTs. Just like when you press [CTRL]-[ALT]-F2 for example from X.
You might want to take a peek at /etc/inittab for lines like:
Code:
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --noclear tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
Here there are 6 terminals, which restart after someone logs off.
If sshd is running you can login remotely.
I believe this is exactly what you wanted.