GDM options
 

My Redhat 7.3 distribution boots into a GUI login manager ( I think it's called GDM). This GUI gives me the option to login as a user or reboot / halt the system.

I'd like to know if it's possible to add another option to the GDM list that would let me drop down to console (text) mode. Most of the time Gnome is fine but sometimes I just need console mode to do a quick fix. In console mode I could then login and do my thing.

It envolves thorough knowledge of GDM, you might need to poke around of source code,
For easier access to console in X just press ctrl-alt-F1 to go to any of the first available tty's (in this case tty1), press ctrl-alt-F2 you can get to a second tty (tty2), by default there are 5 ttys available (F1...F5), then to switch back to X just press ctrl-alt-F7

Or if you are not wanting to have it startup in a gui mode, you could edit your /etc/inittab file and make it always start up in console, and then when you are ready to start your GUI, simply 'gdm' command would start you up to where you currently are starting up at.

HTH

Thanks guys for the responses. Between the two I should be able to do what I want.