Why does X keep reloading after I kill it?

[AeroSnoop]

When I kill X with ctrl-alt-backspace, the damn thing keeps coming right back. Why won't it stay dead and just leave me at the command prompt?

This happens with both KDE and Gnome.

Also is there a way to just tell X to close out properly and leave me back at the nice command prompt from whence I came?

I'm fairly new to Linux and this is making me very mad. :mad:

[Ath0s]

try this ...

bash# init 3

you'll need to run as superuser

[andysimmons]

This question is asked here pretty consistently...try to search before you ask. The instructions here (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109633) will fix your problem.

[AeroSnoop]

Andy, that doesn't actually answer the question I asked. I didn't ask how to make X not start on boot.

I asked why X keeps reloading itself when I kill it.

The 2nd part of my question was what is the *proper* way to close X and return to the command-line.

[hyp_spec]

killall X works just fine :P

[Hayl]

Originally posted by AeroSnoop
Andy, that doesn't actually answer the question I asked. I didn't ask how to make X not start on boot.

I asked why X keeps reloading itself when I kill it.

it restarts because it (or the script that loads it) is being started by init.

anything that gets started and told to respawn by init will keep respawning. the following (/etc/inittab) example runs the foo program in runlevels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and will respawn it every time it is is terminated.

zz:12345:respawn:/usr/bin/foo

this only works with foreground processes.

if you start a background process this way, init will keep respawning it until your system runs out of RAM :O

[AeroSnoop]

Afraid not :P

1. Launch kdm, logon
2. Open console, issue "killall X"
3. kdm comes right back up again

1. Launch kdm, logon
2. hit ctrl-alt-backspace
3. kdm comes right back up again

This is on on my Gentoo 1.4 that I built, but I've seen it happen on other distributions as well.

If I can launch startx, kdm, gdm, whatever your preference happens to be from a command prompt, why can't I close it and get back to where I started?

The answer should not have to be, "reboot"

[AeroSnoop]

Thanks Hayl. Any tips for how to fix my specific problem? I'm still new to Linux in general.

[andysimmons]

The instructions I linked to will fix your problem. I know his stated problem isn't exactly the same as yours, but cause of the problem is. Making the same change he did will fix it.

EDIT: Ah screw it. Here ya go:

Open up a terminal, and type "su" and enter the root password. Then open up /etc/inittab and change this:

id:5:initdefault

to this:

id:3:initdefault