>This almost seems hilarious, I have to laugh, except for the fact that I'm the dummy :)
>
>How does one quit the GUI back to a command prompt, like exiting Windows back to DOS, without shutting down the system? I used to do reasonably well with SCO Unix at the command prompt, but trying to find something in either Gnome or KDE is driving me nuts. I'd rather just type the command.
>
>Please help me find my way ...
>
>...A
>http://members.aol.com/ARTGR

Don't be too embarrassed. Been there, done that! Most Penquins have... ;-)

Control-T always opens an xterm command line from which you can do any and all manual commands. The 'locate' or 'whereis' (anyone) and 'updatedb' (as root) work very well in finding utilities that are not in /bin or /sbin or /usr/bin, etc... 'exit' on the commandline in the xterm closes the xterm and returns back to KDE or GNOME. THis is what I do on those increasingly rare occassions that I need to use the commandline or su to root.


If you started KDE or GNOME from the command line with something like 'startkde' or 'startgnome' you can use the 'hardway' to stop it. The hard way to quite a GUI desktop is to use Control-backspace. Sorta like hitting a telephone pole to stop a car.

If you have graphical login implemented then you can't 'quit' it without first changing your configuration. In SuSE you'd use YaST2 Control Center and select the "Personalization" option (IIRC) and from there the "login manager". Select the 'console' mode. When you reboot the system you will get a command line prompt. From the command line you can enter 'startkde' to start the KDE desktop.

Regardless of how you started KDE, on the left end of the bottom icon bar is a toothed gear with a "K" in the middle. Click on it and from the menu option that pops up choose 'log out' or 'log off'. You will be taken back to the graphical login manager, (if you had selected that option during the install), otherwise you will be dropped to the commandline.