Chances are that your computer wasn't "really" trashed, however, it is
trivial for an ill behaved program to render the console useless. In those
cases, the only solution is to find a way to access the computer remotely
and clean up.
X fiddles with the keyboard. If X gets hosed, you will likely not be able
to switch consoles.
None of this is likely to change.
===
Evan Jeffrey
erjeffre@artsci.wustl.edu
Let us go. Let us leave this festering hell hole. Let us think the
unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the
ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
--Dirk Gently