most common method for accessing the terminal for most desktop users.
NOTE
Finding and running programs, such as Terminal, from a GUI is covered in
Chapter 3, “Working with GNOME,” as is logging it to a Linux system
using a graphical interface. This chapter focuses on text-based logins and
the use of Linux.The second most common way for graphical desktop users to access the
command line is to press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+F1, after which
Ubuntu switches to a black screen and a login prompt like this:
Click here to view code image
Ubuntu 18.04 seymour ttyl
seymour login:
TIP
This is tty1, one of six virtual consoles that Ubuntu provides. After you
have accessed a virtual console, you can use Ctrl+Alt+ any of F1 through
F6 to switch to a different console, tty1 through tty6. If you want to get
back to the graphical interface, press Ctrl+Alt+F7. You can also switch
between consoles by holding the Alt key and pressing either the left or the
right cursor key to move down or up a console, such as tty1 to tty2.Regardless of which way you access the terminal—using the virtual tty
consoles accessible at Ctrl+Alt+F1 through F6 or via the windowed version
atop your GUI desktop—you will find the rest of the usage details that we
cover work the same. As you continue to learn and experiment beyond the
contents of this book, you might start to discover some subtle differences
between the two methods and develop a preference. For our purposes, either
method works quite well.
There are many other ways to access and use the command line. You could
use a traditional console with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse attached to the
PC that boots into a command-line interface instead of a GUI. You can also
connect to your system through a wired or wireless network, using the
telnet or ssh commands, as covered in Chapter 19, “Remote Access with
SSH, Telnet, and VNC.”
Text-Based Console Login
No matter which way you connect to a command-line interface, you start with
a prompt similar to this one: