I managed to eliminate the graphic login by unlinking the k, x, and g desktops in /etc/rc2.d. That did what I expected, and allowed me to login at the terminal. But 'shutdown now' seems to only partly shut down, leaving me with a 'Enter root password... or ctl-D for...' message. Is it okay to power down from that state? Sorry if that is a dumb question, but I'm new to debian. -- richard