[lug] mouse going crazy in linux

[Hugh Brown]

> How do I absolutely kill X?

on redhat based boxes, xdm/gdm/kdm is run out of inittab.  So I'd 
comment out the xdm line in /etc/inittab before doing ctl-alt-bksp

as you've already noted, your kvm is the likely culprit.  I'd get a new 
one (though I can't recommend any because they've all had problems in 
one way or another).

gpm is also known to cause problems so /etc/init.d/gpm stop and a 
chkconfig --del gpm  will disable it.

> 
> Is the only way to recover that console to reboot?


this is also run out of inittab.  It is usu. mingetty or getty with an 
arg of tty? where ? is 1-6.  You can try and kill that process and a new 
(min)getty should respawn.

Hugh