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Re: Questions from a new debian user



On Fri, Mar 31, 2000 at 05:38:02PM -0500, Phoenix Amon wrote:
> > Why would you want to close X? You can also switch to a 
> > virtual terminal
> > from X at any time using <alt>-<ctrl>-F1 to F6 (there are six virtual
> > terminals at default).

> Well, for instance... if what you want to do from the terminal is upgrade your X server. :) Trying to do this from within X can be a Very Bad Thing, or so I hear. It certainly doesn't sound like a good idea to me. But of course I'm mostly clueless. ;)

not really, the only time upgrading X while its running could be bad
is if you have {x,w,k}dm set to restart automatically after the
upgrade, in which case the curent X session will be killed
unexpectedly would might annoy the user.  i do not have wdm set this
way and have upgraded X many times behind the users back (i ssh in to
maintain the system) never had a problem, except that i cannot remount
the /usr filesystem back to read-only until the user logs out so i can
restart the X server.  *nix unlike other braindamaged OSes allows
files which are in use to be replaced/deleted without causing
breakage.  the existing file remains accessable to whoever is using it
until its closed, then its really removed from the disk.   

i do tend to agree its better to run major upgrades from the console
just in case X dies you can still monitor the upgrade and answer any
questions.  

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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