init 3 (from init 5) just hangs?

[akonstam at trinity.edu]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 05:02:04PM -0500, Eric Waguespack wrote:
> When I type "init 3" from runlevel 5 it just hangs... It kills the
> services and never gives me a prompt back... I am also unable to
> switch to other consoles (via control-alt-f1, etc)
> 
> any ideas? is this just a bug?
> 
> I checked my /etc/inittab, and mingetty is setup to run in runlevels 2-5.

The first part is known bug. What happens assuming you started in
terminal 1 that when you type init 3 the system changes to another
terminal window. One person suggested it is terminal 8. But usually
you can get back in sync by typing ctrl-alt-f2 and
then ctrl-alt-f1 again. 
Often just typing ctl-alt-f1 again works. 
You can try ctl-alt-f8.

If none of that works then you have a real other problem. I am not
sure I have been of much help.
-- 

-------------------------------------------
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
telephone: (210)-999-7484