Can I do this without logging out? say from root. I am using the GUI and a terminal, I wanna restart the X server and then go back to the GUI.

-RHEL3

ctrl+alt+backspace

well, that restarted other things i had running in other terminals. Is there a way to restart only the xserver?

what do you mean by a terminal? Ctrl-alt-backspace should not restart anything other than the xserver and with it all the stuff needing the x window system (so terminal windows will go). The text consoles should remain.

you can also go to a text terminal, and then do
init 3
as root. This will get you to text mode and then you can get back with
init 5

humm - well, I would have thought that a text console was the same as a terminal instance.

Its like BASH shell type thing - so whats the difference between the three? it looks like its a gnome-terminal command being run by this GUI icon.

I was running processes from the three different terminals - I was just hoping not to interrupt them (100% text based) while I reset xserver. Doesn't seem like it should have been impossible. I mean, even without xserver you can run completely independant terminals right - i mean if its a multi-user OS, then this would be a basic function.

terminal windows are just that - they are windows inside an X session that give you the command line. There is no way you can keep them running when restarting X because the windows will have to be closed and that closes the processes depending on them. Besides, restarting the X server will log everyone out who is logged in using X and that will terminate the processes too.

If I really need to have the things running even when X crashes, I use ctrl-alt-F1 to get to a real text terminal and run things there. They are completely independent of X.

ah ok - thnx. So you are saying the fundamental functionality of a level 3 terminal is handled completely different than a level 5 terminal.

But then - you are saying that anytime you reset the xserver you will be logged out - so in essence the answer to my original question is no - unless i am logged in under level 3 already.

Oh no. You can log in separately under runlevel 5 too. When you press ctrl-alt-f1 thru f6 you'll get several login screens. Those really do behave like completely separate sessions. With X, basically you have a user logged in who then runs X. Any process started from within that X session is terminated when that user logs out.

ctrl+alt+f(1-6) Is essencially init 3.(They are separate sessions, I believe.) Init 5 just startsx on boot so you don't have to type: startx . I believe this is used(by many distros) for windows users intimidated by command line, to help the move from windows to Linux.