I've recently installed Redhat 9.0 and I've run into a few questions that I can't find on the Internet or in forums here. Hopefully some of you can help me out.

1. How can I have the computer boot to console mode instead of GUI mode (and can the console mode be added to GRUB)?

2. I've managed to get my netgear ma311 card to work, but only for the current session. How can I make this permanent? I've looked at this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=48023

in which I think my question is answered by Finegan near the bottom (the post on wlan0 setup).

3. I'm not running any web, news or mail servers. Which services can I safely disable?

4. Are there services or settings I should disable for security purposes? (sorry, I've used Windows for too long now and I'm used to this sort of thing)

5. Anyone have links outlining a comparison on KDE vs. Gnome or have any strong opinions about one or the other (and how to switch between them)?

6. Shutting down from within Gnome shuts the computer down and immediately reboots (definitely different from choosing reboot).

Thank you in advance for answers provided.

For number one, go into your /etc/inittab file and look for:

# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4(possibly 5):initdefault:

and change that 4 or 5 into a 3. That should do it for you.


for #3 and 4, posting a list of your running services would help us. Since im not sure what you already have installed/running.

for #5, just try both. Anything we tell you would be opinion and you may think the opposite. Also, try some lighter Window Managers,and try XFCE4, its my favorite.

#5. man switchdesk
#6. It's not clear how you shutdown, and what you expected to happen. If you issue 'shutdown', the computer will reboot (or shutdown). If you were just trying to exit Gnome, were you running in runlevel 5? If so, exiting Gnome would get you a graphical login prompt. If you were in runlevel 3 (and had issued 'startx' to get into X and Gnome), then exiting Gnome would stop the X server and dump you back to the console.

Ok, 5 is answered sufficiently enough for me to work on them. Can I add an entry in grub.conf that gives me an option to boot to either console or gui mode?

For the shutdown problem, I am running in runlevel 5 in gnome and choosing to shutdown instead of reboot or log out. The computer reboots either way.

I have the list of processes in linux; This gives me a new question. How can I set up a partition to allow me to transfer files between linux/windows? I have a fat32 partition and unallocated space set aside for this purpose. The reason I have to do it that way is because the ifconfig command is no longer recognized as a command under root or any login, so I can't get my card to work anymore. Admittedly I was trying to get it to work permanently as per question 2 and I've obviously done something wrong.

On #5, yes you can set this up in GRUB. I think it's as simple as appending a '3' or '5' to the kernel line. '3' will give you runlevel 3 - the console.

Ok, so would I replicate the first entry for linux in its entirety, change the display text to "console" or something similar and then add the 3? I'd like to have 2 entries in grub (console and gui).

Thanks for all the immediate help you guys have given me.

That's correct.