Opening a Shell Prompt

The graphical desktop offers access to a shell prompt, an application that allows you to type commands instead of using a graphical interface for all computing needs. While this manual focuses on performing tasks using the graphical interface and graphical tools, it is sometimes useful and faster to perform tasks from a shell prompt. Refer to Chapter 11 for more details.

You can open a shell prompt by selecting Main Menu => System Tools => Terminal.

You can also start a shell prompt by double-clicking the Start Here icon, then Applications, then System Tools, and finally Terminal.

To exit a terminal window, click the X button on the upper right corner of the window, type exit at the prompt, or press [Ctrl]-[D] at the prompt.