2) That brings up question 2: how do I keep the system from trying to run gdm on startup. I'm able get out of it by pressing ctrl-alt-backspace, but I have to that repeatedly and it's very annoying. I've looked through the /etc/rc.d directory but I can't see what's trying to run gdm.
change the 5 in /etc/inittab, at the line:
id:5:initdefault:
to 3:
id:3:initdefault:
That'll start the system at run level 3, which doesn't run gdm by default.
Also, once you've gotten out of gdm at level 5, you can run (as root) 'telinit 3' to switch to run level 3 without rebooting.
Peter
